When Roisin asked the group chat at large who could make her party, only 3 replied, but she could see that all 20 of the chat occupants had seen the message.
Roisin left it for two days.
Perhaps they needed time to think she thought to herself.
It wouldn’t bother Roisin if the others said no but it was Thursday now and she needed to confirm numbers.
So she messaged Holly (one of the group chat inhabitants who did not reply) privately and low and behold Holly said she could come, pretty much instantly.
Why didn’t Holly respond to the group chat message?
Why did it take a personalised message to get a reply?
I hypothesise that there is too many hiding places in a group chat.
It’s a safe haven for the indecisive.
If you couldn’t go, you’d say no straight away. You have a legitimate excuse.
But if you can go and you haven’t made up your mind yet about whether or not you want to go you can use the indirect nature of the group chat to avoid making a choice.
But that goes out the window when someone like Roisin presses you for a decision by following up individually.
Then of course the only way to hide from private messages is to ghost someone and that does more harm than good in this day and age.
Thomas Duggan 