Skype Family

The Skype Family (previously Skype Circle and currently unnamed) is a group of people communicating on Skype. Its current members are Emm, Beeper, Zion, Becca, Burton, Gramm, and Cheeth. Others considered "almost members" are Mason, Kai, and Ayo. There is a banished member, Nikko, and a retired member, Happy.

History
The "Skype Family" has a debatable start. Some consider the beginning to be with Emm and Beeper in early 2011 as they used the application to play Minecraft together. Banished member Nikko believes that she started the group when she discovered Steam and got it while in her mother's stomach, but this theory is generally considered false.

The years 2011 through 2013 were made up of all the members getting Skype accounts, though not communicating excessively if at all. Also dominating the members was a sensation called the random phase.

In 2013, members of the family started to communicate other than just Beeper and Emm. Early that year, Zion joined to play Minecraft with the others. Later that year, Burton joined to play Minecraft with the others. And by 2014, most of the members were contacts with each other on Skype.

Coining of the Term
In 2014, Nikko joined the group officially and tried to push the name "Skype Family." She organized an event along with Becca called the "Skype Family Christmas Party" that featured all the members meeting in person at once excluding Cheeth. By early 2015, this term to refer to the group was accepted.

Ending the "Skype Family"
In the winter of 2015, members of the group began to "drop out." They were still going to use Skype to communicate but refused to be part of a named group. One of the first to start this movement was Gramm. In May 2015, Nikko announced to over four hundred students at West End that she was thankful she could be friends with the "Skype Family," bringing the name back into use temporarily before it was dropped again. It is now used as a joke, and the group generally doesn't have a name for themselves.