In a recent op-ed in the New York Times, the writer took on the current state of the R.S.V.P. He talked about the lack of response that R.S.V.P.s illicit, and that perhaps evites are on the way out the door. This is especially frustrating as a publicist when you are putting on event and are forced to utilize the cost-effective method of evites. You depend on responses.

The decline of evite popularity is becoming more and more of a trend.

I, myself, have been on both sides of the fence in relation to the R.S.V.P. Nothing is more frustrating then sending out an evite, only to realize no one has responded. Not only does it make you sad, but how do you even know who is coming to the event or not?

On the flipside, I just logged into my Facebook account and realized I have yet to respond to 12 event invitations. Oops. Since the majority of these are for events in different states, I have the tendency to ignore all event evites. I guess that’s not fair to those that are inviting me to actual, relevant events.

I remember back in the day, you would get an evite and everyone would be psyched! There would be a ton of responses – not everyone could come, but at least there were actual responses. Nowadays, it seems no one responds. It’s just another e-mail or reminder that sits in your inbox, going totally ignored.

The other trend is the “yes” that’s actually a “no.” This has happened to me on a number of occasions. People R.S.V.P. yes, and then don’t show up. They never give you warning beforehand – it’s like they totally plain forgot.

I fully admit that if I get an invitation in the mail,  I am 99% more likely to respond than if it was sent via Facebook or some other way via the internet. Why is that?

Is it because we are filled to the brim with information? Are we “over” the whole evite thing? Should we go back to the old-fashion invitation? Or, have we just become too jaded to be bothered with such trivialities?

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