I Am Part of the Resistance in My Group Chat

Ali McGhee
Sep 6, 2018 · 2 min read

I’m friends with a lot of douchebags, but a few of us have side chats and we vow to stop them from posting nonsense on social media.

To be clear, ours is not the popular “resistance” of the comments section. We want our friends to express themselves, but with a filter. We believe they have a good point for every five paragraphs of nonsense they write.

Don’t get me wrong. There are bright spots in the constant negativity they write inside and outside of the chat: meeting up IRL, gossip and therapy sessions for those who still won’t get a therapist.

But these successes have come despite — not because of — the Group Chat’s thirstiness.

From private Facebook groups to WhatsApp and listservs, Group Chat veterans will privately admit they mute the Group Chat while they are working.

“There’s no telling when the Group Chat will go completely off topic. I don’t want to hear a story from five years ago about someone’s mother,” a Group Chat veteran confided in me, exasperated after a friend texted us about his mother’s Avon business.

We are not only working around the clock to keep the comments inside of the Group Chat, we are also working to resist the impulses of our friends to tell anecdotal stories.

We are quietly putting our Twitter feeds first and our friends’ redundant rants second. But the real difference will be made by everyday users rising above threads and reaching for their power chords and resolving to shed labels in favor of a single one: Themself.

Ali McGhee

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