Keep Your Group Chats Small — or It Could Ruin You
Big group chats create unnecessary chatter, and anxiety
Poor Heidi Cruz. In her attempt to liberate herself from the devastating and deadly historic storm in Texas, where her husband Ted Cruz is a senator, she discovered something terrible: There is a mole in her group chat.
After Ted Cruz was caught at the airport flying to Cancún in the midst of the disaster, he told reporters that his children had asked him to take them on a trip. But within just a few hours someone leaked texts from a group chat that included Heidi. The apparently not-so-lovely group chat of 11 people is (or was) titled “Lovelies.” And the text revealed that in fact, the trip appeared to be Heidi’s idea.
A relatively large group chat is, clearly, a terrible idea for a public figure concerned at all about discretion. But what about for the rest of us? Is an 11-person group chat ever a smart idea? How many is too many before a group chat spirals out of control?
If you want to avoid the kind of friend group-destroying scandal that is surely wreaking havoc on Heidi Cruz’s “Lovelies,” keep it smart and keep it small. Even if your texts may not end up on the nightly news, there are other potential consequences like cognitive overload, strained relationships, and missed communiqués…
