Is There A Rat In Your Group Chat?
The group chat is the Happy Hour that never seems to end, right? All day and often into the night, we swap silly anecdotes, emojis, Covid survival tips and tipsy true confessions. But if Ted Cruz's wife Heidi taught us anything last week, it is that breaches of confidence come out of group texts. (Someone in Heidi Cruz' group chat leaked to the press that she planned their ill-fated trip to Cancun, which contradicted her husband's claim that his daughters begged for a Mexican getaway.) Obviously, this breach involved the public record of a lying politician and different rules apply.
Still, there's a lesson here: we women bond because we go deep. We swap confidences in order to support each other. It is what makes us magnificent. However, we all need to respect what I call the "female economy of intimacy." Group chats can feel less sacred because the connection is not in person. Recently, I caught myself about to reveal something salacious I read on a text chain. I stopped myself. Who was I to repeat what someone blurted after a tough day or a few glasses of wine? Here's a thought: it's not a bad idea to remind everyone--and yourself--that personal texts in a group chat are not for public consumption.