Birthdayness

Recently my blog turned one year old (if blogs have birthdays) and if you’re a regular visitor to Champagne Thursdays, you will notice that it looks a little different. I think it looks fresher and happier. That’s probably because I am happier than I was when I first started this blog…

I trust that this blog’s ‘birthday suit’ will remind you of what this blog is really about…  celebrating life and love.

I love birthdays. I am a birthday person. And if you read my blog post around about this time last year (26 things I’ve learned in 26 years) you may remember that I see birthdays as an important opportunity to celebrate life and everything that is fabulous, including myself. But I have come to find that birthdays are curious things… Not everybody seems to share my sentiments on the wonderfulness of birthdayness.

So, if you’ll forgive a bit of ranting, I’d like to share some thoughts on one of the things that I do not love about birthdays with the aim of encouraging us all to celebrate better and to love better.

The Facebook birthday wall post… Most often from someone you havn’t even thought about over the last 5 years saying nothing but “Happy Birthday” or, even worse, “HB” or “Happy Happy” or something of the sort.

Now don’t get me wrong, whilst I do appreciate that the posting individual has yielded to a reminder on facebook and has taken 2 seconds out of their daily internet browsing quota to grace my “wall” with their cyber presence and some positive vibes, I do question whether such an act is merely motivated by some form of twisted social networking etiquette or any number of other societal expectations. Quite frankly, I just don’t see the point. Maybe I’m cynical but I’d rather no wall post than one of those.

Now, if you are actually going to take longer than the aforementioned 2 seconds and write a meaningful/encouraging/humourous/nostalgic/enquiring message that actually means something a little more than two or three socially-acceptable, event-applicable words on my wall, then that’s a different story altogether. I am, however, aware that not everybody loves writing, words and encouragement as much as I do but I still don’t think it’s too difficult to make a birthday wall post something that reflects the importance of birthdays or the one celebrating it.

So, at the risk of sounding patronizing, here are a few ideas on how you could spruce up your digital birthday messaging:

1. Why not mention something that you value about the birthday boy or girl? (And guys, if you’re not the sentimental type something like “You’re a legend” will suffice.)

2. Remind the birthday boy or girl of a funny or happy memory that you have shared to make their day that little bit brighter.

3. Take a couple of extra minutes to search for and post a song/video that the birthday boy/girl would enjoy watching and share it with them.

4. Take the opportunity to share some of your own news. If person celebrating their birthday cares about you they would probably love the simple gift of taking some time to put them in the loop about what’s happening in their life. Obviously sharing happy news would be first prize here.

5. Put all that facebook stalking you do (we know it’s true) to use and, if applicable, comment on what’s been happening in the person’s life. Saying something like, “I’m glad to see you seem to be loving your new job” or anything along those lines shows that your facebook stalking is not in vain and that you really do care.

Of course, all of the above, applies to emails, BBMs, whatsapp messages, texting etc.

But then again… Why not just pick up the phone?!

I love modern technology and relish the digital age in which we live but there really is no substitute for hearing my friends’ voices on my birthday, it just makes me feel that much closer to the people I love, especially those that are far away.

I guess my philosophy is to love with my whole heart or not at all 🙂

In other news I look forward to fabulous messages on my facebook wall on Saturday 😉