DEAR MISS MANNERS: I realize we lead a technology-filled life, with cellphones, laptops and so forth. However, lately I have received text messages as invitations to baby showers and birthday parties.
I refuse to attend a party given by someone who does not even have the time to send out proper invitations. Am I being old-fashioned, or am I correct to assume there should be etiquette where proper invitations are concerned?
GENTLE READER: The choice you offer implies that the old-fashioned should necessarily give way, a premise with which Miss Manners does not concur. She agrees that to be taken seriously, an invitation should be issued in a dignified manner. And she also recognizes that there are those who will therefore judge her to be old-fashioned.
So how is it that you might also catch her texting? Or overlooking someone's failure to issue proper invitations? Put that down to two other old-fashioned values: appreciating others' convenience, and overlooking their lapses.