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!

Should add I was a volunteer with Scouts long before whatsapp was invented and it really was a gamechanger

A lot of what was on email is now on WhatsApp so at least my email is now basically tumbleweed and Nigerian princes 🤣. But I do agree that communications beget communications. Sometimes it would be better if it was harder to tell people stuff because probably about half the time you’d realise it’s not that important.

I haven't found this at all. I'm part of a couple of family groups, one class group which only gets relevant messages, and one community group. The class group is quieter than I'd like and a lot of chat takes place offline, I feel like a lot of info isn't being shared openly. DD2 has just started a nursery but although the contact details have been shared, no one wants to set up a Whatsapp group and I feel very left out (but I don't want to be the one to set up the group either).

During the pandemic a friends MoH arranged a virtual hen. I woke up to 200 messages during the organisation on WhatsApp so left the group. Urgh

Lol. Birthday party groups ? Who on earth create these???

I was added to a national work WhatsApp with 3000 members! Who knew that was a thing?!

I think this is the stage of parenting- schools and groups etc. I have similar with email to a lesser extent.

if you genuinely can’t leave the group, mute it and just read it once a day.

Nope. All mine are fine. Ds2 football, a few mum groups, png, all fine.

I am ruthless about my WhatsApp and really cannot stand being added to groups willy nilly. So I leave quietly when I want and they can now only see who's left if they click on group members I think. It doesn't get announced like it used to.

I also mute and lock groups I can't leave and have changed my privacy settings so anyone that wants to add me has to ask me first.

Literally everyone at my dc’s schools- just easier than inviting everyone separately and also everyone knows who else is invited so they don’t put their foot in it, spawning “my dc not invited” threads on MN 🤣

Btw- not sure if everyone knows this but you can change your settings so you cannot be added to groups, only invited to join.

To everyone saying "archive" what am I doing wrong: when I've done this, the groups (I have already muted) just pop up again. I'd prefer it if these (very active) groups didn't jump to the top of my messages each time. Also: every week I have to go through my phone gallery and remove all the WhatsApp-shared images and memes I don't want. And yet I changed my settings to not automatically download 😐