There Are Group Chats for Everything Now
Teens use the internet to make group chats for sports, events, passions, and more.
If you have a phone, then there’s a pretty high chance you’re in at least one group chat — probably more than one, actually. Whether they’re between family members, coworkers, or close friends, group chats are a way for people to communicate towards a specific purpose, whether that be sharing a chores list or planning an event. They’re useful for communicating in your closest circles.
But in recent days, it seems the uses of the group chat may be changing. Because teens on the internet are currently making group chats for everything. And I mean everything. I’ve seen a group chat for people who are awake at 1–5 A.M., a group chat for people with type 1 diabetes, a group chat for people with strict parents, a group chat for people who are grounded, a group chat dedicated to Adam Jones of the SM6 family band, a group chat for people bored in quarantine, a group chat for animal accounts on TikTok, a group chat for dirt bikers — and that’s just a few of them.
And it’s not close friends or family who make up these group chats. It’s people from all across the internet, most of whom were previously strangers to each other. In order to start one, all it takes is someone making a tweet or TikTok describing the theme of the chat and encouraging people to comment their usernames below. In posts that get pretty big, thus resulting in the first group chat becoming full, people will usually create several more in the comments. Group chats can also be created spontaneously through a comment on a random Tweet, TikTok, or Instagram post. Sometimes a few people in a big group chat will even collaborate to make a smaller group chat (for example, in a big college group chat, someone will ask others if they want to make a separate chat for people on the pre-med track).
There are a few different apps to set up group chats on. The most popular are probably Instagram and Snapchat, used when people want their identity kept public, followed by WhatsApp and GroupMe. On Reddit or Discord, however, people can easily chat anonymously.
There are a few different “categories” of group chats that people will make (there are also miscellaneous and non-themed ones):
Event Group Chats: These focus on a certain event(s). Some examples I’ve seen are people going to South Padre Island, Texas over spring break or people going to Playlist Live. People will also make these to plan events such as all-nighters or parties.
Identity Group Chats: These include people of a certain identity — ex: POC, LGBTQ+ people— or job/passion — skateboarders, farmers, first responders, and artists are some I’ve seen.
Location Group Chats: These include people from a certain place, usually a state or specific city/area.
Study Group Chats: These are for people studying or helping others with AP classes/tests or ACT/SAT prep (or homework in general) where they can share tips and ask questions.
Personality/Friend-Finding Group Chats: When people are looking for friends with a certain personality/life ambitions, they will set these up.
Game Group Chats: These are for people playing iMessage games together or video games such as Minecraft, Fortnite, and Roblox. People will also set up activities such as book or clothes swaps, or “Bachelor”-style chats.
Creating group chats is a way for people to form closer connections with others on the internet — to go beyond just a random ephemeral like or comment or shared moment on Twitter. It’s like if you accidentally bumped into someone on the street, got to talking, and later, realizing you actually have a lot in common, planned to get coffee sometime.
Like things on the rest of the internet, these group chats sometimes flourish and sometimes flounder. Many are often very busy when you first join and everyone comes on them — but will die down after a bit. Sometimes smaller group chats will branch off. Sometimes group chats will stay talking about their intended purpose, but perhaps more often they will go off on tangents.
These group chats also take people in unexpected directions and help expand their horizons. Because today’s teens spend so much time on their phones and are often deal with loneliness, creating group chats helps them make new friends and connect with others over common interests. It’s a testament to how willing most teens are to welcome people of all different backgrounds, personalities, and interests and to form relationships online. Even teens with the most uncommon interests are bound to find similar people online. In a way, this authentic social interaction creates a virtual world where people can interact, study, game, plan events, etc. Maybe it’s what the internet was always intended to be.
But group chats aren’t only over text. In recent days, they’ve been increasingly held over video. Wanna Zoom, anyone?
