the group chat is where adulthood quietly moved its public square. not the glamorous parts, obviously. the group chat is largely weather complaints, grocery photos, and the collective management of a restaurant reservation nobody wanted to make.
it still performs essential services. it witnesses a bad day. it confirms that a suspicious text is suspicious. it keeps a small but functional archive of jokes that would otherwise have evaporated the moment they were said.
there is always a person who posts the news, a person who posts the meme about the news, and a person who arrives six hours later with a very sincere question that was answered directly above them. democracy survives anyway.
maybe that is why i am protective of it. the group chat asks very little: show up when you can, say something strange, and do not make the shared calendar a hostage situation.
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