In a landmark study that experts say “immediately validated millions of silent eye-rolls,” researchers confirmed Tuesday that 92% of all group chat messages could have been sent to one person instead of all 14 people currently being notified against their will.

The report, released by the Institute for Digital Communication Fatigue, examined more than 4.6 million messages across family chats, friend groups, neighborhood threads, fantasy football groups, workplace channels, wedding planning chats, birthday coordination chats, and at least one group that nobody could clearly identify the original purpose of anymore.

Its conclusion was blunt.

“Most group chats are not actually conversations,” said lead researcher Dr. Elaine Porter while standing beside a projector slide labeled Why Are We All Here? “They are mostly two people talking to each other in public while everyone else is held hostage by notifications.”

According to the findings, the modern group chat has evolved into a deeply dysfunctional communication format in which one person asks a simple question, another person answers incorrectly, three more people add unnecessary commentary, one person sends a GIF, one person replies with only “lol,” and the remaining members spend the next three hours deciding whether the chat has become important enough to open.

The study found that the average group chat message falls into one of several highly repetitive categories:

• A message clearly intended for one specific person but sent to everyone anyway
• A reaction to a message that did not require a reaction
• A photo of food with no useful context
• A scheduling suggestion that somehow makes scheduling harder
• A vague “Sounds good” that helps nobody
• A meme that derails the original purpose of the conversation entirely
• A question that had already been answered 19 messages earlier

Researchers also identified what they called the Broadcasted Side Conversation Effect, in which two members of a group begin having what is effectively a direct message exchange in front of everyone else.

“This is one of the most common patterns we observed,” said Porter. “For example, someone sends, ‘Hey Mike, did you ever find that charger I lent you?’ and rather than texting Mike privately like a civilized person, they instead invite 11 unrelated people to witness the entire charger investigation unfold in real time.”

In one case study included in the report, a group chat originally created to coordinate a casual Friday dinner generated 137 messages in under two hours. Of those, only six were directly related to dinner. The rest included three parking complaints, five opinions about whether one restaurant had “fallen off,” four dog photos, an unrelated story about someone’s dentist appointment, and an escalating argument about whether 6:30 p.m. was “basically 7.”

“I just wanted to know where we were eating,” said study participant Lauren M., who was added to the chat despite not yet confirming whether she could attend. “Instead, I now know that Kevin’s cousin used to work near the Thai place, Amy’s husband doesn’t like booths, and someone named Dan apparently had a life-changing mozzarella stick in 2019.”

The report found that, in most group chats, only two to three participants are actually driving the conversation at any given time. Everyone else falls into one of four recognized behavioral types:

• The Muter: Has not read the thread in weeks but remains technically present
• The Reactor: Contributes nothing except thumbs-up emojis and occasional laughter responses
• The Late Arriver: Opens 84 unread messages and asks a question that was answered at the beginning
• The Escape Fantasist: Wants to leave the chat every day but fears being publicly noticed

Researchers say this social paralysis is one of the key reasons group chats continue to survive despite widespread resentment.

“Nobody wants to be the person who leaves,” Porter said. “The emotional stakes are completely disproportionate. Rationally, you know it’s just a chat. Socially, it feels like faking your own death.”

The study documented dozens of examples in which participants remained in dead or irrelevant chats for months or even years out of politeness, confusion, or sheer inertia. One respondent reported still being in a “Cabin Weekend 2022” group despite the trip being canceled, the cabin being sold, and two members no longer being on speaking terms.

“The chat is still active somehow,” the participant said. “Last month someone used it to ask if anyone had a good chili recipe.”

Workplace group chats fared especially poorly in the study. Researchers found that office messaging threads had the highest concentration of messages that could have been either private, ignored, or never sent in the first place.

“Work chats are a unique ecosystem,” said Porter. “A person can say ‘Quick question’ at 8:14 a.m., and by 8:19 the entire department is trapped in a 47-message thread about printer toner, calendar invites, and whether Carl is working remotely today.”

One especially troubling office example began with a manager asking if anyone had updated the slide deck for an afternoon meeting. Within 25 minutes, the chat contained a debate over the correct file name, two screenshots of different versions of the same presentation, one accidental message clearly meant for another chat, and a separate discussion about where to order lunch.

“The slide deck was never actually discussed in a useful way,” the report noted. “However, 11 employees now knew that Melissa was craving Chipotle.”

Family group chats, meanwhile, were found to be the most emotionally complex. While less efficient than workplace chats, they contained the highest levels of guilt, repetition, and unexplained use of ellipses.

According to the study, the average family group chat includes:

• At least one parent sending blurry photos with no caption
• One relative who types as though every message is an emergency
• One family member who responds only with “K”
• At least three duplicate reminders about birthdays, holidays, or appointments
• An aunt who somehow discovered stickers and is using them aggressively

“Family chats are less about communication and more about maintaining a low-grade emotional weather system,” Porter explained. “Nobody is fully happy to be there, but everyone understands that leaving would trigger a phone call.”

The report also examined what happens