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Sure, the millennials kill something new every week, but you really want to know what I’m surprised we haven’t put in the ground yet? Facebook. Amidst the bad press, horrible privacy policy and outdated interface, Facebook could always hold on to a few things that people would intermittently use thanks to the social network’s behemoth network of your social scene: planning parties and pregames.
But, it looks like that might be going by the wayside thanks to Facebook’s saving grace and consistently cooler early adopter acquisition: Instagram. Millennials can’t be blamed for this one. Instead, blame it on the new age of teens – Cali teens to be specific – who are killing this social party planning niche. It’s a pretty smart move all things considered, but it’s also scary for those in the older generations still tormented by not getting invited to the right Homecoming post-game.
Per a scintillating piece by The Atlantic, the new age of teens have transformed the world of party evites thanks to Instagram, which continues to be one of the most highly-used platforms on the market for young folks.
The premise of the Instagram evite (ivite?) is simple yet cunningly cliquey. An Instagram user will create a new profile but instead of filling it with Drake captions and #candid shots, they’ll instead include important details for the party including when, where and (most importantly) who can be invited. The “who” is obviously the most important factor in this.
Thanks to Instagram’s private profile settings, the party planner has complete control of who gets invited here. So, if you send a request and they accept – you can attend; similarly, if they follow you first, they want you to come. If you send them a follow request but hear crickets…welp.
It’s a pretty ingenious usage of the platform and not surprisingly comes from the trendsetters in the space: Cali Teens. Even better, the account can be used to track party updates in real-time, post real-time stories during the party and passively aggressively exclude those not in attendance. Then, once the account owner has that built-in following, they can create more parties with their customized guest list – rinse, repeat.
It’s a brutal concept, but high schoolers are typically brutal in nature. Everyone has that one moment from high school that pulls the wool from their eyes and shows why the bricked hallways and fragmented friend groups of your once-innocent high school resemble more of a human-filled jungle than a learning institution. The Instagram evite is just another cog in that machine.
Dating myself, Facebook events were big in my college years. I relished the opportunity to write a witty (probably cringe-y) party description that included BYOB requirements and what divey bar we’d crash afterwards once we got our first noise violation of the night. While the Facebook event wasn’t sent to everyone in my friend group, it did have the option for friends to invite friends. The Instagram version seems a bit meaner and a bit less passive in the party orchestration as you willfully get to exclude and include as you keep eager party goers in Instagram follow-request hell. Maybe I’m just getting soft or maybe the new age of teenagers are getting more cutthroat with their social media tools. Either way, I’m excited to pass the “industry-killing” meme to them – let’s see if they follow back. .
Respond
@TaylorLaabs
@taylor1laabs
High school kids are savage, they’re taking that lord of the flies mentality to the internet. Back in the day, at least kids could at escape all that when they went home.
Only reasons I still keep a facebook profile:
1. remember people’s birthdays
2. easy for coordinating group plans
3. to sign in to shit like Bumble and Airbnb and Spotify without having to type in my email and shit lol
Those damn young whippersnappers with their Instaphones and their Ichats.
Not cool enough for Instagram. PGP
The adult version of your roommate receiving a Save the Date from a mutual friend and you do not.
No friends, no problem (me.)
Nothing was more soul crushing than seeing an event created by a “friend” pop up on your newsfeed and see you weren’t invited
Yikes. This is probably one of the only instances in my life where I’m thankful to be 31.