"I Have to Quit or Get a New Identity" — Mom Accidentally Sends Evite to All Her Contacts
"They need to remove that option immediatelyyyy omg"
Published April 15 2024, 2:01 p.m. ET
Computers are great at being told what to do — once a command is issued (considering that everything has been properly coded and is in working order) the software will do its thing.
The thing is, however, is that computers thrive on specificity. There isn't really a "context" module, or "hey maybe considering this situation maybe we shouldn't do that."
Sure, A.I. is advancing in leaps and bounds in a very short amount of time, but it still isn't perfect, just ask these folks who found a fifth member of the Beatles in A.I. generated art.
And it's not like it's being implemented as part of every piece of software that folks have access to, either.
And one woman learned the hard way just how absolute technology can be after she designed an Evite for her daughter's first birthday party. The TikToker and Mom, who posts under the handle @twodachshundkings, uploaded a video where she reveals how her fundamental misunderstanding of the Evite software's import contacts feature placed her in a very unenviable situation.
In her video, she wrote that she didn't know that after hitting the "import contacts" feature the software would immediately send the Evite out to everyone in her contacts list.
She assumed that she would get to go through all of the contacts individually and select from the list who would receive an invitation for her daughter's first birthday party.
This wasn't the case — according to the TikToker every contact she's ever saved in her phone received the Evite and not only that, but she described an additional, harrowing detail that made everything much, much worse.
"I just made an Evite for my daughter's first birthday party. And on Evite it says, 'import contacts?' and I thought it may import to select through. No, it imported all 487 of my contacts and invited them to this birthday party," she says, horrified as she covers her face with her hands.
The video jumps forward in time, delineating just how dire the situation is — and how much worse things got after discovering the nomenclature Evite implemented in reaching out to her contacts: "Not only did it invite my boss, all of my coworkers, all of the people that have ever been stored in my phone, but it sent invitation based off of how they are stored in my phone."
This means that they are stored in my phone. And I want you to just take a second and think about everyone stored in your phone and how they're stored in your phone and then imagine receiving an invitation."
She rattled off some of the embarrassing examples she found herself having to suddenly navigate as a result of Evite's import contacts feature: "Derek eye roll, he received an invitation. Umm, Jess hit her car in the parking lot, anyways I have to quit or get a new identity...yeah, I don't even know."
Folks who responded to the mom's video were sympathetic to her situation, albeit many of them expressed their solidarity with the woman in a jocular manner. As one person quipped, "This should qualify you for witness protection."
Another remarked: "I think evite owes you compensation"
Someone else said that there were terrible consequences associated with the implementation of this feature, like folks who would have never wanted to show up to your party jumping at the opportunity to attend: '„Rita annoying co-worker' accepted evite"
One person thanked the mom for her posting as it helped to prevent her from hitting "import contacts" and sending out the invitation to everyone in their contacts list.
There was one TikToker who did offer up a genuine solution to the mom's dilemma, however: "Make a cancellation evite card and send it to them all."
Have you ever found yourself in a pickle like this while sending out electronic invitations to folks?