WhatsApp is not fun anymore

[DalloMallow]

WhatsApp used to just be about me and my friends and family chatting, sending pics to each other, and being part of some great groups. It used to be fun.

A few years later and most of my time on WhatsApp now seems to be dedicated to:
-Scrolling past endless PTA spam repeated in multiple class WhatsApp groups.
-Regular birthdays party groups with constant back and forth about presents etc.
-Multiple requests for me to confirm availability on two different children's football club groups.
-The Scout group has created a "WhatsApp community" with four or five different sub groups related to each section plus camps etc with many regular messages.
-DP has taken to creating new WhatsApp groups (with just the two of us) to discuss specific DIY jobs.
-I volunteer for an organisation and that of course has a group!
-In the ultimate ironic act, I joined the WhatsApp community for smartphone free childhood which now has both local and national messages to wade through!

I know it's not really WhatsApp, it's me and this phase of my life. I used to feel happy when I saw I had a WhatsApp message, but now I just feel exhaustion!

Same. It's terrible but the only way I can manage my mental overwhelm is to only ever read them at a time it's useful to me. So I use the class WhatsApps to ask questions I need to know the answer to but I don't engage in other chit chat. And I'm ruthless about leaving groups eg birthday parties as soon as it's over.
I know this is all bad etiquette but I don't care. I sometimes feel like I'm on the verge of a fully menty b over the amount I'm responsible for on top of a complex paid job too.

YANBU. I recently bought an item online and, as well as sending me the usual confirmation email, they took it upon themselves to send me a WhatsApp message. It felt like a real invasion of privacy I think because it creates an uninvited direct channel in your app that you can't just delete only leave. I told them so and blocked them. Also seeing spam recently where you find your number added to groups, uninvited. It's quite annoying.

I have muted notifications for almost every group I'm apart of!

DP has taken to creating new WhatsApp groups (with just the two of us) to discuss specific DIY jobs.

WTAF? this is the last straw here - leave the group and tell him to talk to you like a fucking adult

I always mute and archive conversations which make me feel like that.

I must be really unpopular because my WhatsApp isn't like this at all and I have similar level of groups on mine.

I run a Scouts WhatsApp community and they're invaluable for organising everything we do. Don't like them? Leave. Or mute it. Scouting is run by volunteers. We need to do everything possible to reduce the amount of time spent organising activities and make communication as simple and efficient as possible.

I had a physical reaction to that

Omg

Of course this is true. But also, most people don't have kids in one activity. They do maybe five. And perhaps they have two children. And then they have family groups, friend groups, work based groups (for social purposes and other ones for work purposes).
And then there's email. And Slack. And the apps that the school has you check daily.

People's lives have become 90 per cent keeping up with incoming noise. No wonder we feel so fragile

And when I say people, I mean women.

You can hide them or archive. Very least just mute them and read only when suits you. Otherwise you become a slave to your phone.

It's not WhatsApp which has become not fun, but how you are choosing to use it.

Mute groups or don't join in the first place.

Be more ruthless and definitely mute most groups

What is a whatsapp community and what makes it necessary compared to just a group?

Me too. I couldn't stand the constant notifications and interruptions.

Communities are an umbrella of groups. In my Scouts community we have different groups for all the leaders' teams and parents' groups. Means people can be easily moved between groups and there is also an announcement group that can send messages to everyone in the community for whole group activities - remembrance parades, district/are activities etc

-DP has taken to creating new WhatsApp groups (with just the two of us) to discuss specific DIY jobs.

Why? I can understand a general jobs chat if you have a project house because then everything is in one place, but why multiple? Is he normally this weird with other things?

EDIT - -In the ultimate ironic act, I joined the WhatsApp community for smartphone free childhood which now has both local and national messages to wade through!
No idea what this is. Can you unsubscribe?

I mute a load of chats, but one "community" I'm in has loads of annoying subthreads and you can't see the one you want without opening the others, while the other one just has separate chats and I have one unmuted and the others permanently muted.

Scouts ran long before WhatsApp and managed to communicate what was organised at the sessions. Having excessive communication makes it harder for volunteers not easier.

@FoxtrotOscarKindaDay I organise so much more than the weekly sessions. You wouldn't believe the extras I'm doing. Every weekend in October I'm busy doing things for the group.

I’d really like to see the DIY one.

Do you really have to be a part of all these groups? The school ones sound nightmarish - I wonder how we all managed before WhatsApp when we had children in primary school? Somehow we all seemed to function perfectly well.

The expectation on parents was seriously low by comparison when I was at school.
It's off the scale now.

Phew, totally forgot I posted this thread! Thanks for the comments.

I'm not criticising any one group for wanting to stay in contact, I'm actually involved in the Scout group so I'm well aware how useful it is to be in contact with parents in this way.

It's just when it's all added together with multiple children, and you get loads of emails too from the same organisations, or the organisations even have their own app!! (football club, and the PTA!)

I yes I mute a hell of a lots of groups, but I need to be in them in order for my children to participate in their clubs/school etc etc.

When i was a volunteer with my DCs Scouts and swimming club whatsapp made it massively easier. I’m in chats for all sorts of things and it is just about the most useful thing ever. Maybe I’ve been lucky that they have all largely stuck to the original purpose.