Evite - the EVIL side

So I've talked a bit about the benefits of Evite, how it is convenient and keeps organizers organized. As with all things, there are good things and bad things. so with this post, I am going to talk a little bit about the EVIL side of Evite.

With evite, it seems that I don't talk to my friends about the upcoming event as much, whether it's electronically or face-to-face. For example, it's 2 of my friend's birthday this weekend. One party I found out through an Evite in my email and the other one thru icq messages and then on Evite.

The evite to the first party was sent by my friend's girlfriend. On the site, she asks us what our preference of food was, what we are going to bring from a list she wrote, and what we would like to do. I'm not a person who can remember everyone's birthday (not that I don't want to, but there's too many!!!), and without anyone talking about the party beforehand, receiving this Evite on my email surprised me. I was excited, yet I feel un-informed. Before using Evite, party organizers would ask face-to-face or at least ICQ/MSN if we are available, what we want to do, stuff like that. It was a lot more personal and I felt like my opinion actually counted. Now, with evite, I am sent a mass email inviting me to a party. I reply on the Evite with my response, later on the organizer will read my response and most likely not respond to it since there is no such function on evite (except to send an email). I wouldn't know if the organizer read my response, i wouldn't know what she'd think, etc.! Worst of all, I STILL have talked to her about the event! Talk about being PERSONAL!

With the 2nd party, I felt a bit more 'welcome' and 'being wanted to be at the party' since the organizer gave me a heads up and asked me if I was free on icq first. However, because he's never sent an Evite to me before, he sent it to an email account I use for spam. I didn't want to set up so many accounts on evite with the many different emails that I have so I usually get evites on the one account. it took him a couple of days to send the evite back to my email that I use, and whereas he could've gotten my response in an instant if he had asked me in person, or even thru instant message. I guess he was trying to utilize one of evite's functions and be organized with "goer"'s responses.