Do you have group chats have made friendships worse, not better. Change my mind.

[David0]

Going to make an unpopular claim here, group chats have actually made a lot of friendships shallower rather than deeper despite constant contact, replacing genuinely meaningful one on one conversation with a constant stream of low effort reactions and memes. Everyone's technically in touch all the time now but genuinely deep conversation seems to have gotten rarer as a result. Change my mind if you've got a genuinely strong counterargument

The obvious counter is that group chats maintain connections that would have simply faded entirely without any contact at all, which I'll grant has some truth to it. Still think there's a real cost to constant low effort contact replacing genuinely deeper connection though. Curious if anyone's actually got a solid argument against the core claim

So change my mind if you can. Genuinely open to a good counterargument here

[StringTheory88]

Think the actual variable here is genuinely group size rather than the format itself, since smaller close groups seem to maintain real depth while larger looser ones do tend to slide into exactly the shallow pattern you're describing. Worth narrowing the claim to specifically large sprawling group chats rather than the format broadly. Small groups genuinely seem to dodge this problem

[NightHarbour91]

My closest friendships have honestly gotten deeper specifically because the group chat handles the low stakes daily stuff, freeing up our actual one on one time for genuinely meaningful conversation instead. Doesn't have to be either or necessarily. Depends completely on whether a specific group actually uses it as a supplement or a full replacement for deeper contact

[Poppy51]

Fair point about shallow contact beating none, but I still think it's created a false sense of closeness that discourages people from actually reaching out one on one when it genuinely matters. People assume the group chat counts as staying in touch when it often doesn't for real emotional support. That specific substitution effect is the actual harm I'm pointing at

[Wolfhound44]

Group chats have genuinely kept several of my friendships alive across long distance moves that would have completely faded without any contact at all, so I'd push back pretty hard on the core premise. Shallow constant contact still beats zero contact for actual relationship maintenance. Depends heavily on whether the alternative is genuinely deeper contact or just no contact at all

[Natalie78]

Watching friends slowly stop replying individually while still being active in the group chat has genuinely happened to me multiple times, which does support your original point somewhat.

The group becomes a comfortable place to hide from individual effort. Not a universal pattern but a real one I've personally noticed happening