I used to send my Facebook friend a happy birthday message, when Facebook told me to. Or rather when Facebook reminded me today is their birthday.
I slowly realised that sending birthday message to someone you are not familiar, never met or don’t really care about is meaningless. I used to send such messages just because I want to be polite and make them happy. But the truth is, I am relying Facebook birthday reminder alert. So the birthday wishes that I sent wasn’t that sincere after all.
So why did I do something that is so fake. And I also don’t like to receive such birthday wishes during my birthday. Which is why I set the privacy of my date of birth to – only me.
Now, I don’t send people birthday wishes anymore on Facebook anymore. Even if I can remember their birth date, I find it unnecessary to write it on their FB wall. I don’t do that even for my wife.
The only exception is my mum or my elderly relatives. The older generation has just started using Facebook. So nowadays they are quite active. Old folks can be very sensitive. They may get upset if their son did not wish them happy birthday on their Facebook wall and sometimes very “time-free” relative can even gossip about it. You probably can resonate better if you are a Singaporean.
Nowadays, for people I care about I would send them a direct message, call them, send them a picture or video of me wishing them a happy birthday. Some really close one would be a face to face meet up. I find this way more sincere and meaningful to me and that person.
So if you are my Facebook friend and did not receive birthday wishes from me – It is just me wanting to be truthful to you.
Or I’m just too lazy to be polite. 😬