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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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Polly Hudson

You can mute – but you can never leave. Why have WhatsApp groups become so stressful?

Photo portrait of woman in a red-patterned cardigan holding phone while looking quizzical, against a purple background.
‘An anxiety-ridden full-time job’ … navigating the WhatsApp subgroups. Photograph: Posed by model; Deagreez/Getty Images

It’s the new last taboo. Officially added to the list of topics you absolutely must not discuss, along with politics, money and religion: the WhatsApp side group. Apparently nobody told Melanie C from the Spice Girls though, because she has just revealed far too much about theirs.

“There are subgroups within the group,” she told the Sydney Morning Herald’s Sunday Life magazine. “I definitely know there is a chat group that doesn’t contain me, but somewhere else we keep Ginger or Posh out.”

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