The Unlikely Leader in Instant Communication

Some type of messaging app has dominated adolescents at every stage of this century’s online development. The AOL Instant Messenger launched in the late 1990s and remained a stronghold in youth culture until the mid-2000s when teens began using cellphones at a younger age and turned their fleeting attentions to texting on their Chocolates, enV2s, and Razrs. When smartphones rose to prominence around 2010, exclusive WiFi texting such as Blackberry Messenger or iMessage became the cool thing to do for consumers to communicate around the world without cell service and without paying for downloading media. iMessage still can be convenient, provided the person who you’re texting has the same brand of smartphone.

The thing with those exclusive WiFi texting services is that they are, to put it bluntly, exclusive. For a few years now, this disconnect has given us some of the most first world problems out there. Group texts are inconvenient and texting one of the “other” people who uses an Android always seems like a pain and a little weird since emojis don’t always load the right way and since you can’t see when you’re being left on read.

The new form of communication that I believe characterizes this current technological phase of our generation is GroupMe.

Although sliding into the DMs was a close second in my contemporary communication power rankings, GroupMe has become a staple in college students’ lives.

While you may not chat directly with a friend through GroupMe on a daily basis, think about how many groups you have been added to since you moved into Penn State last summer-clubs, project and study groups, your residence floor, group chats with a friend group which has that one innovator with Google’s new Pixel phone, and not to mention the awkward groups formed last spring with other incoming freshmen who were eager to make new friends right away.

GroupMe has made communicating easy and put everyone on a level playing field where all people are able to join a group, regardless of how little technology they have access to. There is no way of knowing who has what phone or who is using a computer instead of a phone.

The rise of GroupMe has corresponded with the revitalization of non-Apple phones. Phones like the Pixel, Samsung Galaxy S7, Google, and Microsoft Lumia boast scores of new high-tech features that the simple, user-friendly iPhone can’t support, appealing to a demanding and apt young adult market.

With more people making the switch from Apple to another brand of phone, the popularity of iMessage has decreased. Now, more consumers than ever need a free way to communicate with others who have different smart phone buying preferences.

With a GIF-database feature that is similar to the one in iMessage and the oddly satisfying ability to like a message, GroupMe has overtaken college campuses, places where thousands of people from all backgrounds interact every day.

GroupMe might not be the most used communication service, but it has become an influential form of social media for our generation. It unifies all types of people, personal differences of phone or technological accessibility aside, into groups. And after all, isn’t that the point of effective communication?

One thought on “The Unlikely Leader in Instant Communication

  1. Hmmm, interesting post. I had never heard of GroupMe before a few weeks into the fall semester, so I guess I never really thought about it this way. Personally, I still like the aesthetic of iMessage as GroupMe feels a little clumsy but perhaps that only represents my individual experiences with it. Although the cross-platform communication is likely the best out there, I’m still not sure I would rank it above Facebook messenger in terms of my personal favorites. However, I would agree with you that GroupMe is certainly influential among members of our generation, and many of its features are quite useful. For instance, I would say that the event feature, where you can create a Facebook-esque event notification within a group is extremely innovative and a great feature. And yes, it is oddly satisfying to ‘like’ a message. Great post, keep up the good work!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *