Group chat

“The Lifeguards” is a polyphonic story, told in the voices of three mothers, with chapters handed over to their teenage sons, a recently widowed detective and the Barton Hills Mamas, an Austin, Texas, group chat consisting of members I thought of as that brood of vipers.

Unanswered messages—whether it's a text convo with your crush, a group chat that none of your friends responds to, or a hopeful conversation starter on Tinder—are just one more way living in this digital age can make you feel all-caps crappy.

But just as the big three TV networks amassed a giant audience in the 20th century, then lost it to cable and the internet, the appeal of bringing the entire world into one big group chat might be over. This is the way a phenomenon ends — not with a sharknado but a whimper.