Why do people exit whatsapp groups?

[Teenie22]

Genuinely interested in why people do this? Unless it’s for a specific event that you’re not going to, or unless there’s conflict in a group, I don’t really understand it. When you set up a group for people who regularly chat and interact and get on, why would you exit the group?

I don't find it particularly weird that people would leave a group. I'm the opposite though - I linger in groups even if it's no longer relevant to me and I like to lurk in the conversations because I'm nosy. I'm still a member of a nursery group that my DD left in 2022 and an apartment block we moved out of 18 months ago. I like reading about the parties and meetups they have, it makes me feel nostalgic! But I always mute notifications so I never get pinged, I just read the messages when I'm bored.

Becsuse of the constant dsmned pinging and endless irrelevant comments.

Because inevitably some boomer starts sending all sorts of links to shitty conspiracy theory videos or "hilarious" jokes that Ken Dodd would be proud of.

I point blank refuse to join grouo chats now.

It’s not how people communicate in real life - you don’t have an ongoing in person conversation with dozens of people at once!

Why are you posting here then?!

You can mute and then archive the group. That way you don’t get any notifications and it doesn’t show up on your chats, but nobody else in the group will know that you’ve done this.

I opt out of family ones all the time but the fuckers still add me

just the noise, the pings. Just some people hate phones and the immediacy of it all these days. Some people just need to be heard all the time. Ping, ping, ping... feckit, I'm out.

Fair comment, but it feels different to me. Not sure why, I guess I just don’t see posting a couple of comments on an anonymous and moderated thread hosted on an internet forum as being akin to an ongoing conversation on multiple random topics with people I actually know in a family WhatsApp group.

You can mute or archive chats

Some people use a WA group as a chat, and the amount of absolute rubbish that goes on is annoying, - even on mute or silent it's still there!

I have a couple of friends who do this - leave groups months or even years after the last message was sent. Why? It’s not like you’re going to be spammed! I just had a flick through my phone now and one of these friends left about five groups on Christmas Day!! Who has the time on Christmas Day to go through all their old WhatsApp groups and delete the ones no one has used since the summer anyway?

I’ve only ever left an active WhatsApp group once. It was for a regular event I enjoyed, but the admins started getting sniffy about people who didn’t go that often being in the group and saying they were going to delete people who hadn’t been lately. Their justification was that they were working hard to get the numbers up (even though they weren’t the organisers - just attendees like the rest of us) and that it was unhelpful to have so many “ghosts” in the group. I tried to point out that excluding people who were interested but couldn’t go as often as they’d like would actually harm attendance, but got short shrift. In the end I decided I couldn’t be arsed with their ego trips.

I have rarely left a WhatsApp group but I completely understand the impulse.

With a small group of close friends I think it’s fine to type without thinking too hard and send messages late/early.

On more ‘official’ groups (in my case, school) I find that there are always a couple of people who don’t seem to realise that every time they press send they are pushing themselves into someone else’s thoughts and taking up their time.

My arch-nemesis, who I’ve only actually met once but regard as a mortal enemy based solely on her messaging, uses the class WhatsApp like a diary. She tells us what she’s been up to and what she thinks about things/likes to eat etc. On one occasion she used it to berate us for not donating to a disaster appeal collection that was close to her heart. I enjoyed seeing her out herself simultaneously as a lunatic and as someone who can’t imagine quietly clicking a link and donating a tenner without letting everyone know she’s done it.

if the school didn’t rely on word of mouth as their main means of communicating important messages, I’d be hovering over that leave button.

@HotChocolateNotCocoa I've had this where old groups show someone leaving years later. I think when you get a new phone number it removes you from groups or something as I've seen people leave every shared group in an instant.

Ah brilliant, thanks, I've just found this function in WhatsApp settings!

I left a WhatsApp group once because the women were racist bullies and I was sick of hearing them say horrible things which I would have to challenge and then be given the virtual side eye by people in the group.

I don't see the point of muting or archiving them if you are finished with it.

It's like putting your plate on the bench next to the dishwasher.

Agree it just takes two seconds to click on anyway!!

You can mute notifications for individual chats.

Bloody hell that’s awful! Don’t blame you at all, that’s terrible.

Leaving is a very dramatic,a bit like a flouncers thread on MN. You can just hide the chat and you won't see it.

But if you don't want to be in it isn't it logical to leave it?

Sometimes you need a clean break. Out of sight, out of mind. It’s not like anyone is notified you’re leaving, apart from the admin.

Is this a thing?

I have half a dozen. I turn the notifications off on the busy ones, so they're not pinging all the time, but they're either a group of friends I want to hear from, or something related to a club, event or hobby that I need to check every now and again.

I'm not sure I've ever left one. The ones set up for a specific event just fade away after the event anyway.

I only recently discovered locked chats. I have 4 groups hiding here that don't come up on my chat screen, I need to seek them out to read them. Two are for exercise classes, others are kids sports related where DH is active so I'm only the back up person.

I delete the whole chat if it relates to an event, I hate 100s clogging up my phone. I tidy it regularly