We Need To Talk About Why I Needed To Talk About Partiful

Okay, so after publishing my latest post roasting Partiful I had some conversations with friends about why they use the event invite service.

During the hours leading up to my friend’s birthday picnic, I got increasingly paranoid that everyone was kind of mad at me for writing a polemic about how much I loathed Partiful, the platform the event organizer used to invite his beloved friends. But then I reassured myself that the picnic attendees’ probably weren’t thinking about me or my Substack. In case you cared, I ended up showing up to the picnic kind of late and apologizing for something that no one was actually mad at me about. After the picnic, I got a decent hot dog at a nearby wine bar and overheard some bands play at an adjacent outdoor festival (I assume the festival was $50 and the hot dog was $8 so that’s a good deal).

I had a nice time.

I will give Partiful this: using the service, the event organizer updated us where exactly in the park him and his partner were sitting. The info was sent via text from Partiful. I imagine that without Partiful, this would have been a hassle because they’d have to either email everyone separately or manage a myriad of text threads. I am listening and learning and though this isn’t a mea culpa, this is me admitting that I don’t have all the answers. Opinions, takes, strong stances — whatever you want to call them — can be fluid.

In the words of Sheryl Crow, “Everyday is a winding road.”

As such, I will now reflect on why I was so angry in the first place. Occasionally, I have an impulse to hate. Why?

Let’s bring it back to Freud.

Just kidding.

When a platform isn’t easy to use or has an aesthetic that I find mildly obnoxious, I jump into hater mode and start drafting up a polemic in my head. Last Thursday, after being forced to interface with Partiful, I started thinking about what it represented (millennial emoji vibes). However, in this rage, I didn’t fully take into account that there really isn’t an alternative at the moment. Maybe, we can one day to transition to a post-Partiful utopia, a new horizon where events are organized via word of mouth or pen and paper. It could be a a sustainable commune. There will be a repurposed redwood event space at the center of a beautiful, dusty village; posters advertising upcoming events will be plastered over bathroom walls. There will be no lists because if you’re living on the commune and milking goats or devoting your existence to baking vegan focaccia, you’re invited. In this shtetl, everyone will communicate by passing around a conch. Playlists, dietary restrictions, and general vibes will be decided peacefully and amicably and without heavy-handed, emoji-riddled technology. But we are far away from that utopia. And so, Partiful shall suffice. I don’t want to see the world as black and white. I need to accept yin-yang.

Also, I want you guys to keep inviting me to stuff and not assume that since I roasted Partiful, I don’t want to go to your party, picnic, or dinner.

That’s why I am flip-flopping: Partiful isn’t an international crisis, it’s aggressively fine.

In other news, I’m really enjoying “FLY” by Quavo and Lenny Kravitz.

It’s the song of the summer.

Boom.

What’s your song of the summer? (Sound off in the comments or text me with your take + latest Partiful link).