By Esmée Zuiker
The AUC Whatsapp group chats are deeply woven into the fabric of student life. Confused about an assignment? Send a desperate cry for help in the Academics chat. Need cigarettes at 2 a.m.? The AUCSA’s community Buy, Sell & Trade has your back. Want to rage bait, complain about people having sex, or ignite a political debate? Then you must be lucky enough to be added to the OG Buy, Sell & Trade. Trying to find your package? How dare you ask in Buy, Sell & Trade! That’s why we have a separate Dorms chat. Thank you very much.
Like many social media platforms, the group chats seem to have evolved beyond their original purpose – and not always in a good way. As the online communities grow in scope and chaos, some students push back. Much like people quitting social media, a new trend is emerging: abandoning the group chats. The Herring chatted with those who dared to hit that leave button.
“I just wanted to sell my sweater, but the message got derailed by people yelling that it wasn’t blue like I said. Many argued it was a darker shade of purple. Others were just mad for no clear reason. And where were the admins? They seemed to have taken the Twitter approach. I couldn’t take it anymore,” says Lieze Wafelaar, a third-year Social Science major who left the chats a month ago.
“Quitting the chats was a struggle,” shares Dwayne Boulderman, a first-year Science major. “I couldn’t find my logic homework partner anymore or feed my masochistic desire to doomscroll through Buy, Sell & Trade lore. Of course, I miss sending passive-aggressive complaints about loud music, but in the end, it is worth it. You’ll miss out on events. But at least you don’t know you’re missing out. You find peace in your life again – and maybe even a little faith in humanity.”
“I think not being in an AUC chat gives me this mysterious vibe I was going for,” says Elena Duraznola, a second-year Humanities student “Like, an off-grid girl who actually cares about real issues in the world, outside of our digital frenzy. People have to talk to me to get to know me now. They can’t just search my name, see my profile pic, and scroll through my past messages. They have to walk up to me and ask for my number. It’s vintage, I like it.”
Jeremy Laray doesn’t attend AUC, but somehow ended up in the Whatsapp community. He got emotional when explaining how the Dorms Pets group kept him from quitting. “It felt like a safe space. But then one day I posted a photo of Simba in someone’s dorm room, and people got really angry. They accused me of holding him captive against his and his owner’s will. Then they realized I don’t even live here and freaked out. I felt really sad about it. Having that safe space taken from me… that’s what pushed me over the edge, and I left.” Jeremy refused to comment on how he gained entry to the dorms.
Jormay Parey, had a more heated take. “The chats are all just bullshit. My thoughts were full-on censored while the Herring can just openly spread misinformation about a DUWO signal chat or whatever. Just this crazy cancel culture. They blocked me, they blatantly violated my freedom of expression.” When asked what kind of messages he used to send, before the admins removed him, Jormay said “simply the truth they can’t handle.” When asked to comment on the surging rumours about him being Laray’s alter ego, Jormay promptly blocked us.
Despite all of this, the Whatsapp community detox trend appears to be a rather underground movement. Statistical analysis even indicates that activity in the group chats is on the rise. Still, the withdrawals pose important questions about the roles these digital spaces should play in AUC life. Do the chats still serve their original purpose? Is there a way to make the online community welcoming again, or should it be abandoned by all users? Although these queries remain unanswered, the stories of those who quit offer a perspective beyond the perpetual flood of hundreds of unread messages.
The Herring 