Simultaneously I am fighting with a broken computer on which my internet keeps crashing and which has stuck my new phone in restore mood (I've tried many times to get it out of restore but it isn't happening...soon I'm off to somewhere with wifi to get my other computer which isn't broken to fix this but it has no internet so hence the wifi hunt)- yep I currently have no phone which in the modern world feels a little like locking your keys in your house or forgetting to wear pants in public. And so I get to also feel the horrible power of technology in our lives and how debilitating it can be...
So it goes without saying the digital world is a mixed bag and I could speak at length about the pros and the cons, but today I have a particular whinge to get off my chest...the "maybe" to a digital invite! I know people have mentioned that the "facebook maybe" is typical of Gen Y (the generation I cringe at being part of) to the extent that some term it the "Gen Y maybe".
I'm not saying that this is something I'm never guilty of. I am not a fan of the notification counter showing that I have events I haven't replied to and so I just reply "maybe" to get the counter to go away. So my sincere apologies if you have been the victim of a "maybe" from me...I do try and change things to an actual yes or no at least a week before the event if it is a personally organised event but sometimes I miss this mark.
So acknowledging my guilt on this front, now for the hate rant! Some of us reply maybe because we don't like notification counters, some of us because we've been invited to something that is so far in the future that we have no clue if we will actually be free, but the horrible fact is that the reason for many facebook maybes is that you are saying "I'll consider this event only if something more exciting doesn't come along". We'd never say that to someone's face nor back in the days of paper invites and replies would we have written that on a reply card- in past there were three options, "yes", "no", or not replying (the lazy no). In the past had we indicated that we might go to something, we at least contacted people to apologise if it turned out we ultimately couldn't come to something. Now it is just the click of a mouse and we say "maybe" and we don't think of the implications of this.
If it is a personally organised event (not a group organised one), someone is likely shopping for food/drinks, and assuming that they are planning at event suited to particular people. People have different techniques when there are facebook maybes...some don't take them into account, others do (I'm the latter camp...unless I know someone is a habitual maybe and I know that they never show up). If an event is planned by those who take maybes into account, the person isn't just missing your company...they are likely missing money as well and it would have just taken you the another click of the mouse to save them that money. And we often don't apologise as we think "I never actually said I was coming".
So I'm making a commitment not to facebook maybe anymore...I will either say coming or not coming or I'll not reply (because no-one plans on the attendance of someone who didn't reply). I ask you to join me in saying NO to the facebook maybe and thereby returning some civility and politeness to the digital age. So I leave you to prove the below quote wrong.
