Health, Beauty and Lifestyle with Denise McNamara

Did you know that he average adult is now in 83 active group chats. A survey of 2,000 people found that more than a quarter used group chats to stay in touch with friends, family and work colleagues. Family group chats are the most common (66%), followed by friendship groups (55%) and night-out planning (30%).

One in six believe they have been added to too many group chats, with the study showing a staggering 3,276 messages are sent every year, in an average family or friend group.

I’m not quite that bad, but I have to say keeping up with all the group chats is positively exhausting, in particular the ones for the kids.

Recently a mum of four rang me to express her exasperation at how many texts were coming through her teenage daughter’s sports Whatsapp group.

“I can’t handle them,” she cried. “She has her own phone, why do I have to be getting them.”

I remember feeling similarly overwhelmed at one stage and asked one of my daughter’s sports clubs to text her directly rather than me. No can do, was the reply. Not until they are over 18.

When she decided to leave that particular club, I was sad as she’d been with them for the last seven years. But I got a little woosh of happiness when I was removed from the Whatsapp group. Another one less to keep track of.

I got a bit of a land myself with one group I set up when organising my son’s birthday a few years back. The minute I added two parents, they removed themselves. It was a bit of a slap in the face. I wasn’t surprised when they did not RSVP. But I am kind of reluctant to set up a new chat group unless I know the people well.

Kate Mannell, Research Fellow in Digital Childhoods at Deakin University in Australia, said group chats can provide important spaces for building and maintaining relationships and are often places of joy, solidarity and refuge.

But they can also be a burden, creating feelings of anxiety and worry.

She conducted a survey of 1,000 people in the US and UK which found that 40% of the respondents said they were overwhelmed with the number of group chat messages and notifications from email, social media and news apps.

Pictured: Group chats can be the bane and the joy of our lives.