Thanks to Facebook and all of these other methods of stalking people, we no longer need to remember people’s birthdays. The internet does that for us too! [Which reminds me, we have some awkward posts coming up regarding social media so if you have any ideas for these, drop them anywhere and I’ll find them somehow.] So now we don’t even have to bother with remembering our friend’s birthdays and blah blah blah. .
Do you ever feel like you can’t trust a website such as Facebook to have the right information? Every single time I see the little notification of someone’s birthday, I click on their profile to make sure that other people have been commenting on their wall to say happy birthday because wishing it to someone when it isn’t his or her birthday can be very interesting. Even when I think I’m sure, I begin to doubt myself after thinking about how awkward it can be for me if I have it wrong.
My birthday is easy to remember. It’s 7-7 (July 7th) and people still manage to get it wrong. I said “Oh it’s not my birthday today” a total of 3 times. They were close though.
I thought about several solutions for us forgetful people when we’re in doubt.. check it out:
1. Call and ask “Hey, when’s your birthday?” if they say “Today” then be cool about it, say bye, and hang up. Then call back and say “Happy birthday!” as soon as they answer.
2. Check his or her Facebook profile.
3. Call his or her mom and ask. If she doesn’t remember, take the risk and wish your friend happy birthday anyway. It will add joy to his or her life —some much needed joy.
What would you say to the response: “Oh, it’s not my birthday today.”?
[Thanks feistygirl]
I would respond by saying, “Really? I’m sorry, when’s your birthday?” It usually smooths things over. Btw, one year my dad called my nephew 1 month before his b-day. Me and my bro never let him forget this now.
A month? Hahahaha!
Dude I’ve tried thinking of ways of getting out of it, and I’ve ended up saying something like “Oh crap.” then they feel bad and say “thanks anyway” . . even more awkward.
I’d probably say something like “Well have a great day anyways!” I bet people are more happy that you’re interested in them then they are concerned that you got the day wrong, you know?
Thanks to the wonders of Facebook, I celebrated my birthday TWICE last year! Once, on the actual day, and once again on whatever day I listed on my online profile. (Apparently no one realized that I’m not 84. Ouch.)
This would be the second year in a row that I celebrated twice, as the year before my girlfriend messed the day up! (Double ouch.) I think the only thing worse than wishing someone a happy birthday on the wrong day is having to pretend it’s your birthday on the wrong day. “Why aren’t you excited ‘Tim? It’s your birthday!”
“Oh, yeah…”
Dude! Having to pretend stuff is always awkward haha.. and lucky you, people fell for your birthday trick, that’s funny!
Edwin
in a way, social networking has made our lives simpler in terms of remembering stuff 🙂 Thanks for the mention Edwin……..Priya
Thank YOU!
Edwin
I would say…
“But you LOOK one year older!”
Then I would duck.
^LOL
Hey belated happy birthday! And I did that to my uncle only 2 days back. And he asked ‘is it my birthday today?’ 😐
I wished him about 5 hours before it was his birthday! How lame is that!
Speaking of facebook, I quit facebook this year. My birthday came and went and A LOT of people forgot it. It kind of upset me, but that’s a whole different story (my family, etc). Some good friends remembered. I told someone about this. I told him that next year I am going to tell everyone my birthday’s coming up so people remember and wish me a happy birthday….you know, take care of myself…make sure to get the attention I may want on my day. He said I should get back on facebook a month before my birthday and declare it “Mahra’s birthday awareness month”…you know like motorcycle safety awareness month? I laughed for a long time about that…but I think I will do this in a way…tell people…take responsibility for my happiness. It’s really all about the meaning we put on these things anyways. I know my friends love me, just because they might forget my birthday is no reflection of how they feel about me. It’s all about expectations and meaning we put on things…
One of the things that I’m wondering now is how did people do this before Facebook or MySpace? I think we used to do it like you said, we told people about it and reminded them over and over.. actually I think my teachers in grade school would keep a birthday calendar haha.
I think there’s a conspiracy on Facebook about birthdays. Twice this past week I have wished someone a Happy Birthday only to discover that I’m a day early. I swear the notifications said “Bob has a birthday today”. On one of them I just added the comment that I was retarded and hope that they had a happy birthday for the next day. Now I am going to double check the person’s profile BEFORE I post! I caught these two, but it may have happened before… And of course, I’m not going to go on their profile the correct day and say happy birthday. I already said it before the others!