Notice Concerning Festival Greeting Flood
A seasonal greeting enters several group chats simultaneously and returns to its sender from multiple directions at once.
Evidence
At 07:14 on the morning of a public holiday, the subject forwarded a festive greeting image to six group chats. The image contained a seasonal graphic and the words "Wishing you and your family a wonderful [occasion]." The subject did not compose the message. The subject received it, and forwarded it.
This is standard procedure.
Propagation
Within forty minutes, the subject received eleven incoming festive greetings. Three of them were the original image the subject had forwarded, returning from different groups via different paths. Two were visually identical images from different sources. Four were text-only variants. Two were animated.
The subject sent acknowledgment reactions to nine of the eleven.
Chain Structure
The greeting sent to Group Chat A was forwarded by a member of Group Chat A to Group Chat B, where the subject is also a member. The subject received their own greeting from themselves, via an intermediate party, in a different context.
The greeting is now two generations removed from its original source, which was not the subject in the first place.
Governing Rule
Once festival greeting flood becomes the group norm, every member must pretend the norm emerged naturally.
The norm is that greetings circulate on festival mornings through a process of simultaneous forwarding and receipt. The norm was not established by any individual. It emerged from the collective behavior of everyone forwarding to everyone else at the same time.
Participating in it is expected. Not participating is not prohibited. Not participating is noticed.
Findings
The subject sent six greetings and received eleven. The net deficit of five represents greetings sent by people in fewer group chats, or people who did not receive the subject's greetings via any chain path.
The festivity is not meaningfully increased by the volume. The volume is the demonstration of the festivity. These are not separable.
Status
The greeting flood will subside by midmorning. The same image will appear again on the next public holiday. By then, the subject will have forgotten who forwarded what and will begin the process again.