Has social media taken away the joy of birthdays?
With social media at our fingertips, missing a friend or loved one's birthday is a thing of the past. But is it possible that the platform has taken away the true joy of receiving a birthday wish?
You know what it’s like when it’s your birthday - the messages stream in on social media and the phone rings. Well, it rings sometimes, because it seems that social media may have taken away the joy of friends calling and connecting with you on your special day.
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Childhood friends, former colleagues, and even neighbours flood your timeline with posts to wish you a 'Happy Birthday', but how many of them actually take the time to give you a phone call?
I remember when I was younger and when there was no social media (okay, I’m giving away my age here). I remember my landline would ring off the hook with calls from loved ones far and wide taking the time to wish me. But it does not seem the case anymore.
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One of my colleagues, who recently celebrated his birthday, felt very strongly about this. After noticing that many of his very close friends and family chose the social media route to wish him, he came to debate this with me. Here’s what he had to say:
If you do decide to use social media to spread some birthday love, here are two tips that may just make your birthday message a little different from the rest.
HBD or HB2U is out
Acronyms when it comes to birthdays are a no-go. It’s almost as though you didn’t have the time to even write out the birthday message in full. Not cool.
Post the day before it’s someone’s birthday
Posting the day before will make it seem that you didn’t rely on that Facebook reminder and will earn you brownie points with your loved ones.
At the end of the day, in addition to my colleague, I spoke to many others who voted for the phone call route. For me, it doesn’t really matter what medium is used, but I sure would be bummed if a close friend or family member forgot my birthday.
No matter how busy you are or if you hate the phone, a birthday only comes once a year and a call is bound to put a smile on anyone’s dial on their special day.
Are you someone who relies on social media to say happy birthday or do you actually make that call? Share your comments below: