Feelin’ the Facebook Love

So, today is my birthday. Seems to happen every year right about now. Even if I wanted to avoid it – or ignore it (which seems to be more the case with every added year) – Facebook makes it impossible.

For the five of you out there without a Facebook presence, the social networking juggernaut automatically notifies you when each and every “friend” of yours has a birthday. Not only on the day itself, but on the Sunday before you get a notice of all your friends who will celebrate a birthday in the coming weeks.

This is frustrating, because I’ve always taken some bit of pride in writing down my family and friends’ birthdays on a big paper calendar (talk about ‘old school’) that I have under the keyboard on my desk. Then (depending on the importance or significance of said friend or family member, to be brutally honest) I either send a quick email, make a phone call or – hopefully – have looked ahead early enough to have the time to go buy a card and drop it in the mail.

I can’t tell you how many people have been pleasantly surprised over the years that I bothered to remember their birthdays -- with even a quick email. It seems like such a simple thing to do, yet so many people just don’t seem to take the time to do it. Honestly, it’s been kinda fun to do something nice like that all these years.

Then came Facebook. Now remembering someone’s birthday is almost entirely done for you. All you have to do is click on a person’s name, type in your greeting and post it. Woo hoo. But I wouldn’t be surprised if there will soon be an ‘app for that’, too. It sure has taken the fun and “specialness” out of my efforts to brighten someone’s day, though. Dang.

Now all I have to worry about is how many messages I’ll get on my Facebook wall today. 25? 50? Do I dare hope for 100? Nah … because, I know no matter how many I get, it won’t be long until the insecure side of me starts asking why I didn’t get more. I mean, who doesn’t like me or want me to have a happy birthday? What did I do to them? Did I somehow miss their birthday?

Crud. Life used to be so much simpler. I must be getting older.  

Happy birthday to me.