Your friend is celebrating her birthday this weekend and you're invited. Although you don't actually speak to her about it, you do get a Facebook invite telling you you've been invited. Clearly, we're too old to send out invitations to our birthday parties in the mail (although I did love my barbie invite circa 1993 and secretly wish I could still send it out today), but we don't find anything wrong with sending out an inviation on Facebook. We think if we cook up a clever tag line, give the event a witty name and simply state that it's just another excuse to drink, it makes it all alright.
A few scenarios unfold from deciding to attend an event on Facebook. Scenario uno: You see who is attending the event and you decide whether or not go go based on who you see. So, what you're really saying is, "I don't really care that Jason is turning 28, his sister will be there and she's recently single." That's right, the boy decides he wants to attend because a girl he may or may not hookup with is going to be there. News flash: just because you're stalking her down and showing up at the party she is attending does not mean you are going to take the girl home.
Scenario dos: You neg an invite because you're just not in the mood to go out. That translates to, "It's all the way on the upper west side and I already sang with the rest of em at work today, not going to happen." Who cares, it's only your co-worker, right? Wrong! You spend nearly 40 hours a week with this person and you've sobbed to them about your boring love life, your shoe-box sized apartment and the fact that even though you work out every day you still can't seem to lose those last 7 lbs. Be a decent human and show your face, if only for one drink, that's still better than being a no-show.
Lastly, we have scenario tres: The open invitation. This means that although you may not have been invited to attend, the invitation can be viewed by all 400,000,000 members of Facebook. Awesome, I'm sure you really wanted that random russian man who moved in next door to you and smells like cheeze whiz to come crash your party. Or how about your younger sister's 19 year old ex-boyfriend who puked on your shoes at last year's birthday bash? He was obviously not invited this year, but the invitation is open to the public, which means, he's showing up so watch your shoes.
Facebook has given people a false sense of intimacy. Sending an invite to 372 people on a social networking website does not bode well with me. So here's the bottom line: Next time you decide to have a birthday party (which I also can't believe we still have to do, but I can't get started with that now) try calling your "intimate" friends and inviting them. Yes, that means you have to dial their phone numbers and use your voice but I know you can do it. No tag line necessary, just a simple, "I'm having a party, I'd love it if you could come," should work just fine. And if that doesn't work just mention there will be a ton of single people, that ought to seal the deal.
