Bring whoever you want! Let me know if I missed anyone! Tell your friends!
Birthday culture has always been a little outrageous but over the past few years it seems like it’s become even more inflated – like balloons in the shape of the number 2 and the number 7.
A lot of this can be traced back to social media. The Instagram birthday collages, the Facebook event invites, the Snapchat paid filters.
But of all the trends, the one I find to be most disturbing is the prevalence of the phrase “bring whoever you want”. This phrase seems to sit on the tail end of every Facebook Invite or text message reminder.
Now, I get that many of you may argue that this is a tactic to get your friends to show up because they can feel comfortable bringing their other friends along in lieu of other plans with those same friends. But I’m calling bull on that argument. First, your real friends don’t need an extra reason to show up to your birthday party. But second, and more importantly, this isn’t about your friends – this is about filling the room.
We’ve become obsessed with filling the room as if the room is a direct representation of us. A representation of our popularity. A representation of our likability. A representation of our ego that needs to be filled.
I honestly don’t care about people supporting their egos. Whatever, we all do it. I just find it so strange how drastically this aspect of our lives changes on our birthdays. I mean if you ask anybody how they feel about people on a regular day they will most likely say “I hate people. I have about 3 friends and that’s it”. But then every April 14th all of a sudden, for just a day, it’s all “Bring whoever you want. The more the merrier. I can’t wait to meet your boyfriend and all of his friends.”
I really do get it. Believe me. I just think that this is one of the biggest lies we tell ourselves. We’re told we need to be loved extra on our birthdays so we manifest the feeling in anyway possible whether it’s real or not. It doesn’t matter if our biggest enemy shows up. We’re just happy they could make the trip. In 2019, Superman would just be really appreciative that Lex Luther took the time to show up to his party and would find his gift of kryptonite to be thoughtful.
Anyway, I guess this was just a long way of saying that I don’t think I can make your birthday party next weekend Bryan. Hope you have the best time!
