Social Media Experiment
 

Hey cellar,

I did a little social media experiment today. I changed my birthday on Facebook to August 2nd (yesterday) and had it public view for everyone....Even though my birthday is Februrary 2nd...51 of my friends wrote on my wall and were fooled into thinking it was my birthday.

I don't know what to say about my generation, but I proved that many many young adults are so reliant, so tuned into to social mediums and social networking like Twitter, Tumblr, MySpace, Facebook, etc...that they don't really get to know the real people behind the webpage!

Social media is a good way to stay in touch with friends afar, but I won't forget to still get to know the people around me.

Happy birthday, freshnesschronic!

I'm not sure you're being totally fair here Fresh. As a rule, dudes don't remember birthdays, your Facebook gave them a way to remember...

If it's on the innerwebz it must be true, so....
LOL and haggis!

I think it says more about what you define as a "friend." The real question is, of those 51, were any of them relatives, or one of your top 3 best friends?

I have an awful time remembering things like birthdays, anniversaries, etc. (even though I clearly lack my own penis) so, I admit to being one of "this generation" who is "completely dependent upon electronic media" and whatnot.

Cause I'm totally sure that before the internet, people just completely memorized every detail about their friends lives. No one wrote that stuff in a calendar or date book to remind them, ever.

PS, fresh... while you're angry at our generation...how many of the numbers that are saved in your cell phone do you KNOW without looking?


PPS, I don't know why I got so rant-y in this post... don't mind me

Important life lesson learned early, through your "social media experiment". Nobody really gives a fuck about your birthday, unless there's something in it for them, like an excuse to get drunk.

A lot of times, that is the only way that I know someones birthday. The important ones are stored in my phone.

Since before I was born, my super-organised mother has had a calendar up in the kitchen with everyone's birthday on it. And when I say everyone... okay, not Dwellars, but pretty much anyone else she has ever met. And their children, as well as anniversaries of both marriage and death.

Mum still has a better memory for these things than I do, but if I wanted to mess with her head I could change a couple of dates in her 2011 calendar when she gets it. As long as it's not immediate family she really wouldn't know any better.

I remember important birthdays with no reminder. I just get mixed up on the dates sometimes. My parents, siblings, Grandad - I got. My bro's DOB used to be my "memorable date" when I had a telebanking account. The 'rents and siblings anniversaries - less so - I know the month and the approx date. I lie - it's only my sister's I'm really unsure of. My niece, yes - she's at the end of a month, so as long as I know the month (I do) I'm okay. My nephew's no - it's an odd number with two digits. I know the month but need reminding of the date. My BIL and SIL - not a hope. Both in a warm month I think. BIL, June? SIL, August? I need reminding.

And THAT is family!

The weird thing is a remember precisely the DOB for the man who broke my heart.
But not one of my oldest friends.
I guess the painful things stick in your head more...?

It seems to me that it is somewhat unreasonable to expect over 50 people to know your birthday, let alone be so certain of it that they'll say you got your own birthday wrong on your Facebook page.

It's just the egocentrism of youth. When you get to be my age, you don't care if anyone remembers your birthday or not. ;)

That wasn't the experiment, just the set-up. The experiment is when you do it again in three months.

Hey freshnesschronic, did they send along any b'day gifts?

:lol:


DO IT!


Over three weeks, post that you've become Baptist, then socialist, then gay. See who notices.

If it weren't for Facebook, I wouldn't know when anyone's (except my immediate family and maybe 3 other people) birthday is... If it weren't for my cell phone, I wouldn't know what anyone's phone number is (except my parents and friends from high school's parents' houses)... But if I didn't HAVE these tools, I would keep an address book and birthday calendar. It's not a matter of me not actually "knowing" my Facebook contacts (although I don't actually know all of them), it's just that tools of technology have updated the way people keep track of things.

A friend changing his/her birthday on Facebook is the same to me as that person coming over to my house and changing it in a handwritten contact book or calendar. I wouldn't expect my friends to remember my birthday... I know hundreds of people and there are hundreds of days in the year, so I don't take it personally that people might need help remembering. If Facebook is that tool, that's OK with me...

I remember reading an interview with an avuncular, rather jolly person - an author if I remember correctly. He had quite a few Godchildren (I think he was gay) and admitted he had no intention of keeping up with all their different birthdays. Instead he decided on one day, the same every year, in which he would treat and spoil them. The same day for all of them I mean. It was his Godchildrens' Day. He said they loved it, because it was like an extra birthday.

Good for him, I say. One less card on your birthday as a child doesn't matter - you get plenty. An extra day of being special and treated is worth far more. However I will admit - as an adult - one more card on my birthday makes my year ;)

We too liked that sort of idea.
When we adopted our 3rd daughter her birthday was Jan 3rd but she came to live with us in March.
So to avoid the too-close-to-Xmas business, we started celebrating "Coming Home Day" on March 3rd.

This also meant that explaining the whole adoption business to our kids and the neighborhood was mandatory from the beginning,
and solved a lot of other sorts of problems.

And we still celebrate March 3rd even tho she is 40+ yrs old now with 2 kids of her own.

We have an accidental birthday merge in our family. My mother's b-day is Jan 3rd (but she is not Lamplighter's daughter, I'm pretty sure!) and mine is Jan 4th. And I'm a twin. So all three of us celebrated on the same day with the same cake, when we celebrated at all. Yep, that "too-close-to-Xmas business" thing was an issue for us, too.

Any person born within 7 days of December 25th should be entitled to nominate a different day as their birthday.

Happy belated birthday!

I agree completely.

Fresh, one of my old roommates used to do this for fun three or four times a year for a couple years. When it comes to birthdays, people are going to remember if someone emphasize them (excluding people that are very good at remembering dates). If you throw a very large, and fun, birthday party every year and constantly talk about it, people will remember your birthday. If the only mention of your birthday to someone is a facebook reminder once a year, no one will remember it.

Also I slightly disagree with the point of your experiment. I don't see how remembering someone's birthday is a sign that you really "know" a person. Birthdays are nothing more than an symbolic day where people can feel special for one day a year. Not saying that it isn't important to people or that you can't make someone feel good about themselves if you remember it, but birthdays are very low on the list of information I need to know before I really feel I "know" a person.

To me, really "knowing" a person means that you know a topic that people feel emotionally attached too. That topic that makes someone's eyes light up when they are explaining it. Whether it is someone's job, school, girl/boyfriend, parents, kids, pet, etc, try to find this topic and remember to bring it up whenever you see this person (unless you see this person a lot, then every once in a while will suffice). This is the real person behind the web page.

I'd extend that out to two weeks on either side. At least.


Incidentally, there are a LOT of crazy people whose birthdays fall very close to major holidays.

That's just because there are so many major holidays.


And so many crazy people.