Birthday Buzz

[Kitti]

Recently, I found out (via people complaining online, of course) that people on social media like Facebook have been deliberately closing their profiles and hiding their birthdays when their birthday approaches in order to avoid people wishing them happy birthday.

I had no idea this was a thing and surprised me a lot! What do you guys think? Is this something you'd do or you get where they're coming from or do you lovelovelove getting well-wishes on your birthday?

 

[Justin]

I love attention so when my birthday comes around **cough** April 20th **cough** I want all the attention. Give it to me rofl

 

[Crystalline]

I have never done it myself, I like people wishing me a happy birthday. I can understand how people feel though. A former friend closed off his because unfortunately his father had passed on his birthday so he didn't want any birthday wishes all around. A couple of my friends do it to see who can remember their birthday without the alert.

 

[Aero Blue]

To an extent, I understand. Sometimes you'll get well-wishes from all these people that are just kind of... less-than-acquaintances by then, and it can be annoying to also feel that tug of "oh I should probably say thank you" or whatnot.

Personally, I'm whatever. I love attention, but don't really care about birthdays -- which is to say that you should drown me in love everyday.

 

[Applo]

I do this. I want to be open and 'normal' but most years coming up to my birthday I get this anxiety about how I've achieved nothing in the last twelve months and then I start comparing myself to my sisters and what they had achieved by my age. To deal with this I just try really hard to ignore my birthday. To make it just another day. Obviously having a slew (ok a handful) of people slinging birthday wishes at me doesn't help with this. I used to just avoid sites like facebook etc on my birthday but then I was aware that I was deliberately not doing things I normally did. Hiding it means I can have a super normal day that is special for absolutely no reason at all.

Of course a short while after my birthday I get paranoid that someone will look at my profile, see my birthday isn't visible and start wondering what is wrong with me, so I quietly make it visible again.

TLDR: I'm neurotic about birthdays and end up hiding from them to avoid facing the fact I'm a year older.

A tangential benefit is I don't feel the pressure to come up with responses to peoples messages that each feel unique and not copy and pasted.

 

[Ardent]

I hid mine on Facebook long ago because the well wishes were kind of pointless coming from people I hardly even knew.

I'm grateful when friends and family remember my birthday. That's about it.

 

[Diana]

I grew up as a Jehovah's Witness, so I didn't get birthdays. O: This made me very chill about no one making a big deal about my birthday. Everyone forgets? Nothing Happens? I'm good. I don't care. At the same time, because I didn't get birthdays, I TREAT MYSELF. It's my birthday, I decide what I'm going to do, go, and how big of a deal it's going to be and who gets to be involved. If I want a party, I have a party. If I wanna hide and do absolutely nothing, I do nothing. I never have bad feelings about it, cause I am the master of my day. 8D

My husband on the other hand HATES his birthday (and all holidays that aren't halloween). He grew up in a ratty family situation where special days were made such a big deal that if something went wrong, the day was RUINED and one of the crazies would terrorize the rest of the family. birthdays = drama and stress. So he doesn't want to think about it, hear about, or do anything. He wants everyone to forget and just leave him alone. (And after being a part of this family for over a decade now, I 100% completely get it.)

tl;dr i control how i feel on my bday, so hiding my age on facebook to avoid things is unnecessary, but i totes understand why others do it

 

[Kitti]

I hid mine on Facebook long ago because the well wishes were kind of pointless coming from people I hardly even knew.

I'm grateful when friends and family remember my birthday. That's about it.

I understand a little for people who want other people to just remember their birthdays but it also makes me sad because I have a hard time remembering days. Like, I can sort of remember the month but the day is always "was this your birthday, or was that my cousin's birthday". I swear anymore when people ask how old I am that I do the math really fast to make sure I'm right before I answer.

Er, so, I just want to impart my own "there might be people who like you as a person and do want you to feel cared about but just suck" as a perspective too. Not that you need to change what you're doing for them, just as a reminder that people might still wish you well in general and be bad at days.

 

[Ardent]

I hid mine on Facebook long ago because the well wishes were kind of pointless coming from people I hardly even knew.

I'm grateful when friends and family remember my birthday. That's about it.

I understand a little for people who want other people to just remember their birthdays but it also makes me sad because I have a hard time remembering days. Like, I can sort of remember the month but the day is always "was this your birthday, or was that my cousin's birthday". I swear anymore when people ask how old I am that I do the math really fast to make sure I'm right before I answer.

Er, so, I just want to impart my own "there might be people who like you as a person and do want you to feel cared about but just suck" as a perspective too. Not that you need to change what you're doing for them, just as a reminder that people might still wish you well in general and be bad at days.

Oh, I mostly just hide it to not be bombarded with messages on Facebook. I get that feeling of not being able to keep track of people's birthdays and wanting to double check, so the intent isn't to take that ability away from people. I usually just tell friends when my birthday is coming up (or the day of), especially if I want to do a small get-together or whatever.

But when people forget? That's fine. I don't care about birthdays as much as I did before. I understand people have their own lives and won't always remember everything. When I turned 23 this year, I decided to spend it alone (and didn't tell my ex-housemates because I knew they would insist on taking me out somewhere). I did a bunch of spontaneous shit and it was so much fun. I'd probably do it again next year. Then again, I'm an introvert and I have more fun when I'm alone. Go figure.