The Rise of Group Chats: A New Form of Social Organization
How many group chats are you involved in? For me, it varies. Right now, there are only two — and both are of a more private nature.
Group chats are something that’s not really discussed much; they represent a newer technical form of communication that perhaps is better understood as a way of organizing oneself socially. As such, it has emerged sort of organically.
It has never been a “trend” to start group chats and there is really no major innovation behind it. Despite that, almost everyone now participates in various forms of group chats. It can be with family or friends, for parents in a school class, the football team, different groups or project teams at work, and so on.
The simplicity of setting them up and the immediacy of communication has allowed group chat to impact our society at all levels.
Group Chats: A New Form of Power
I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but it was, of course, brought to the fore by the news this week in the US of the “Signal Chat”, where Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine, was accidentally invited to a Trump administration war chat.
Goldberg suddenly found himself in a group chat with the US Secretary of Defense, the Vice President, the National Security Advisor, the head of the CIA and a number of others; the purpose of the group was to plan bombings of Houthi rebels in Yemen.
That a group chat, even on a secure service like Signal, was used for this purpose — and that a journalist happened to be invited to it — became a major scandal that has put some unusual pressure on the Trump administration.
A Growing Phenomenon
But this is far from the first time a group chat has taken the form of a corridor of power. Remember the UK government’s Whatsapp groups during the COVID-19 pandemic? They came under intense scrutiny when the handling of the pandemic was later investigated.
In Sweden, there is the “Gingänget” in Alingsås, where top political parties vied for power in a secret group chat that was revealed by the Göteborgs-Posten newspaper, resulting in resignations.
Outside the world of politics, another example involved the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank two years ago. It turned out that the bank run was fueled by large group chats for startup entrepreneurs where panic started to spread and everyone suddenly withdrew their money at the same time.
A Grassroots Movement
As I said, group chats are not a new phenomenon and similar ways of communicating have been around for centuries. However, with the advent of technology, group chats have become more accessible and easier to use.
Is this a problem? Yes, sometimes it is. The exercise of power without transparency is always problematic, and there’s a reason why democratic countries have laws requiring that important communications be documented and preserved.
The Role of Technology
At the same time, it should be remembered that it is not the group chat technology itself that is the culprit here. Technology has just made it much easier to achieve what used to be done in other forums.
In the same way that group chats between classmates have replaced phone chains, chatting with those in power is essentially a modern version of the old gentlemen’s clubs — now in your pocket.
A Central Role in Future Sociological Studies
However, group chat as a phenomenon remains interesting and I think that when future sociologists study how society and people’s social interaction and decision-making changed with digitalization, group chats will actually play a central role.
Group chats have become an integral part of modern communication, impacting society at all levels. From family and friends to politics and business, group chats have emerged organically without being a 'trend' or major innovation.
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