I remember people’s birthdays from grade school. It helps that my graduating class only had 153 people. It also helps that most of us are part of the 13-year club so birthday celebrations were drilled into my head for at least eight consecutive years of my life. I remember my 4th grade crush’s birthday, most of my friends’s birthdays from 5th grade and I remember all of my best friends’s birthdays. I have a great memory.
Thankfully for those of you with a less detailed memory of such events, there’s the Facebook birthday reminders. I’m a big fan of this feature. For all of the birthdays I do remember, there are a ton that I don’t. Those little red gifts on the right hand side of the page help to keep our current relationships in tact. Many friends have come and gone since those grade school days. Just because current friendships are five years, four years or even two years new, that is no excuse for forgetting a birthday. Especially if the person(s) is someone you consider your best friend, that’s even more reason to remember them on their birthday. You could go a step further and come up with a thoughtful gesture to show how much you love them and appreciate their presence in your life. The first idea to consider would be buying them a gift that they would really appreciate. For example, if your best friend is a dog person, and maybe has a pet too, you could gift a cute miniature dog sculpture necklace that artists like Silver Lucy London have to offer. Organizing a themed surprise party could be another idea. Well, I’m just throwing ideas around so it inspires you to come up with something. Anyway, don’t forget your best friend’s birthday!
Birthdays on Facebook can be extremely rewarding or extremely disheartening. If you’re lucky by social standards and your birthday falls on a weekend, you receive very little Facebook love. If you’re lucky by Facebook standards and your birthday falls during the week, you will probably still have to work the next day.
I’m pretty sure that our mothers and grandmothers kept track of birthdays the old-fashioned way — in an address/date book. Nowadays, so many of the 50+ set are on Facebook that I’m sure they no longer keep track of important dates the “old fashioned” way. Do these online reminders make us lazy? Are we so inept at keeping track of things ourselves that we have to have a networking service keep track for us? Or is this just another mere convenience that we have embraced as an online society? I wonder what our grandmothers would think.
Regardless of which category your birthday falls this year or how you keep track of important events in your life, remember to always foster your real life relationships. In the end, it’s the face to face relationships that count.
And to everyone on my friend list: Happy Birthday!
