'I was accidentally in a family’s private Whatsapp group for months. I got emotionally invested.'

"I was accidentally in a family’s private Whatsapp group for like 7 months and somehow became emotionally invested."

So last year I randomly get added to a Whatsapp group from an unknown number. I didn't care about it much at first since getting added to a group you have no idea about is not something extraordinary. It was a group called "Smith family chat" with like 14 people in it.

I assume it’s spam. About to leave. Then I notice it’s just… normal people. Grandma profile pic. Uncle with sunglasses. Someone named “Maria - kitchen.”. It was a family group and I was now technically part of someone’s bloodline. It wasn’t crazy dramatic. That’s the part that kinda stuck with me.

It was normal. hospital visits, birthdays, someone’s kid failing math, someone complaining about rent, granny sending those good morning pictures that look like they were made in 2004. nothing viral-worthy. Just people existing. and for some reason I kept checking it. not constantly, but like once in a while when I was bored.

At first I was gonna leave instantly but idk. Curiosity won. I just thought “eh I wanna see how long it takes for them to notice.”

It takes MONTHS.

I watched full family drama unfold like a weird Netflix show I didn’t ask for. Cousin failing classes. Aunt beefing with uncle about a dog. Someone got hospitalized, everyone panicked, then she was fine. Birthdays. Good mornings. those motivational images with glitter text. I knew so much about strangers I legally should not know.

The creepiest part was that they kept tagging me like I WAS someone. They’d be like “you bringing chairs?” and I’d stare at my phone like bro I do not know any of you I cannot bring chairs. one time they were arguing about what color to paint a room and I swear to god someone wrote “ask him, he’s usually right about this stuff.”

About ME. a random dude. I was suddenly promoted to family consultant in a household i don’t live in. I never said a word the entire time. total ghost. Just watched. which sounds creepy but idk it didn’t feel like spying, more like falling into a parallel universe by accident and refusing to leave because it’s interesting.

And the funniest weirdest part is literally nobody ever questioned it. Like…at all. months went by and nobody went “hey why is he never replying?” or “is he even reading this?” nothing. If they really thought I was part of the family you’d expect at least one person to poke me like “bro you alive?” but nope.

And that kinda messed with me. Like either they barely talk to that actual person in real life anyway, or they just collectively decided “eh, he’s quiet, whatever.” Which is somehow sadder. I kept thinking about the real guy whose spot i accidentally stole. Does he know he’s supposed to be in here? Does he know they’re planning stuff without him?

Does he feel left out? I honestly felt guilty sometimes, like I kidnapped a spot in someone’s family without meaning to. But I kept going. Cus I enjoyed listening to a bunch of strangers talking about their daily life.

Seven-ish months pass (i know because the media auto-download nearly killed my storage). and then one day someone finally asks “wait who is this number?” then like 6 messages of “who???” “who added?”.I panic, apologize, say wrong number, and immediately got removed.

That’s it. Over. And weirdly, I still think about them sometimes. I’ll just remember like “oh yeah Maria finally got that job” and I was like then realize I will NEVER know what happened to any of them ever again.

They felt more real than half the internet because nothing insane happened. Just life. IDK why that messed with my brain a bit. Maybe because sometimes you meet people, don’t really “meet” them, and then they disappear forever, and that’s normal. but it feels strange anyway.

Here's what people had to say to OP:

bowle01 wrote:

This is pretty hilarious because my mom keeps adding my old number into our family chats because she has two contact entries for me in her phone and just adds both just in case. I wonder if the “right person” was in the chat all along and your number was just a stray number that one family member still had saved. So it is possible you actually never took anyone’s place.

OP responded:

I thought about this too. This makes sense.

wannabespedteacher wrote:

Damn. I wish that my family group chat would add a total stranger on accident. My maternal relatives are toxic af and you probably would’ve been invested in the drama lol. I plan to cut them off soon.

OP responded:

You can add me 🙂

Itstrip wrote:

I wouldn’t be sad about the person whose spot you took. I have a couple of family group chats like this and there’s always 1 or 2 people who don’t actively participate and everyone is aware of that. They will usually get a phone call to make sure they’re actually in the loop and didn’t just ignore the messages. Surely someone in there had their real number and didn’t give much thought to the wrong number in the chat.

99DalmatianPups wrote:

Something similar happened to my partner, but it was an older lady with some kind of neurological/ developmental disorder. She accidentally typed in his number instead of her (we learned now deceased) relative’s when making a contact, so now he just occasionally gets added to group chats or receives individual messages from her about whatever.

After the third time he was added to a group, he messaged that they had the wrong number and left it, but the lady added him back!

That’s when he got a text from one of the other numbers in the group apologizing and explaining that she doesn’t understand due to her condition. Now, anytime my partner gets the occasional message from her, he’ll heart her messages or respond wishing her happy holidays as well just to make her happy / not confused about the lack of response lol

Chaos-Pand4 wrote:

I inherited a work phone # from a colleague who, I guess, used it for personal stuff too. For a couple years, every summer, I would get looped in on the group text for whatever his family was doing for their annual big meetup.

I tried a couple times to get taken off it the nice way, by letting him know, but there was obviously someone who was still using my number. It wasn’t a big deal. I’d just mute the conversation while it was going on, and delete it later.

But one day I just decided to start participating. Like in a really weird, I’m-obviously-not-the-person-you-think-I-am way. Being like: “Is Aunt Bertha bringing both her boyfriends this time or just the one?” It took about 5 messages and 10 minutes for everyone to figure it out and remove me, and it never happened again.