Everything to expect from a Freshers’ Group Chat
Have you ever wondered what goes through group chats full of freshers? Well, you’re about to find out.
Shocker: Someone brags about how much they can drink
There’s always at least one person in a university group chat who can’t go one minute without letting the whole chat know how much they drank last night, how they’re supposedly “never drinking again” and how they’d probably be able to drink you all under the table anyway…right? Expect constant sick emojis and blurred pictures of their most recent night out that they share in the group chat.
Someone starts a fight
This rarely happens, and even if it did, it would be pretty difficult to tell whether the person was serious as tone of voice is pretty hard to pick up on in a group chat! The most likely thing to do in this situation is usually to mute the chat and hope for the best. Let’s hope that you won’t have to be one who sorts it all out face-to-face. Expect short sentences and no emojis to be able to tell that something is amiss, if someone is actually upset it’s probably a good idea to go and talk to them, skirting around the whole social media side of things.
Memes, lots of memes
You’ll probably realise that university group chats can pretty much exist on just memes alone, whether it’s your classics or some new trending additions, everyone will probably have a meme folder stored in their phone for the perfect moment. Expect a vast array and wide collection of memes in all their many shapes and forms, you’ll grow to love them for the beautiful thing they are.
The multiple notifications
Look away from your phone for one second, and BAM, 46 notifications flash on your WhatsApp logo, six dramas, four people who left, and during the time you literally went to the toilet.
WhatsApp chats have this uncanny way of weaving their way into your everyday university life, you’ll stop reading the news pretty soon and only check the group chat to see all the new gossip, including the dramas of who got and broke up with who, the pictures from last night and the constant jokes. Expect several (hundreds) photos from a night out, the majority of which have been taken in a club and, therefore, are pretty blurry and pretty dark. Oh and does anyone recognise that guy standing next to Jess?
When your joke gets ignored
Have you ever suffered the pain of sending a joke, a witty comeback or even an image into the group chat simply for it to be completely and utterly ignored? Yeah, you thought you brought out your meme ace card at the right time, but literally nobody could care less. It’s happened to the best of us, you’ll get it next time!
The re-names
It’s probably best not to check your user name. Snapchat usually allows anyone in the chat to edit and alter everyone’s names, making for an eclectic mix of nicknames ranging from cute to downright inappropriate, rude and silly. Expect to constantly check who’s who again since the names have changed 10 times in the last 24 hours. I’ve seen some shocking ones in my past.
Muting the chat
It’s probably for the best, and make sure it’s on “muted until I turn it off”. If the group chat is sending you slightly insane notification-wise or if you are in a setting that really is not appropriate to text back and forth, then a quick mute is all that is needed at times for a definite detox. It just becomes a tad awkward when you forget to unmute it as you’ll end up being completely disconnected from everything for a few days which is never a good idea- group chats move on very quickly, and you tend to get “bullied” when you ghost it.
Expect to forget that you muted the chat for around five days- only to be bombarded with around 250 plus messages upon un-muting. Brilliant.
When people ignore your questions
“Does anyone know…?” it’s such a common phrase to hear in group chats. You’ll probably enquire about completely sensible issues or features of fresher’s week only to be completely ignored by the rest of the chat. Try to get used to it, anything serious or in any way practical is usually switched into a joke or replaced by a funny YouTube video…or just a “seen”.
Whilst it can be very frustrating, group chats tend to be set up for the reason of jokes, funny images and memes.
Passive aggression display
Maybe a photograph of a passive-aggressive note left in the kitchen or a few passive-aggressive emojis like the eternally confusing smile emoji, the university group chat often plays host to a wide array of disputes communicated in a passive-aggressive form.
Expect to submit your opinion in a passive-aggressive way only to get a passive-aggressive reply. Group chats are love-hate relationships sometimes!
Unflattering images
During Fresher’s week, there is usually no shortage of unflattering pictures flying around, and plenty of snaps are taken during drunken nights out. Expect the group chat logo to be regularly changed to images of flatmates with drunk pizza hanging out their mouths or a live-action GIF of someone signing karaoke on the first night of freshers.
