For the most part, the people that know your birthday are friends, family, and perhaps co-workers. With social media such as Facebook, created by Mark Zuckerburg, everyone on your friend list, and then some if you have open privacy settings, can see your birthdate on your Facebook profile. When you see someone’s birthday displayed on your events list for the day, how do you react? Do you shrug it off or immediately click to the person’s profile page to send them birthday wishes? Many people on Facebook enjoy receiving those messages. But other people on Facebook prefer to keep their birthdate a private matter for family and friends. What might be some reasons behind this?
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Each person will have varying boundaries. In the world of Facebook, privacy settings afford you the luxury of setting your birthdate to ultra private so that nobody sees it. But many choose to display their birthdate on their profile. Different researchers feel some Facebook users choose to share their birthdate with their Facebook friends to boost their mood. What do you think when you visit someone’s profile and you see a ton of birthday wishes? Some might thing this person is mega-popular! One researcher from the University of Guelph in Canada shares insights in a CNN Tech article:
"If you're someone who has your privacy settings set quite high -- you don't post your birthday, you don't post what's going on in your life -- you're not giving other people the opportunity to comment on those things," "You're going to find that there's less going on your page, and you may actually feel less popular as a result."
Interactions in the social media world can be quite different from face-to-face interactions. In social media, a lot of the interaction taking place is immediate. If someone posts a message and you do not responds, does that mean that you don’t agree? If you don’t click that famous ‘like’ button, does that mean that you dislike what they said? If you don’t go to someone’s profile and send them birthday messages, does that mean you aren’t really friends? Social media has created new criteria by which many measure their own and others’ popularity. In turn, self-esteem and health of your interpersonal relationships is also brought into question. Why don’t you want to share your birthday? If you did share your birthday, why didn’t anyone leave you any birthday messages? Are you really not that popular?
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What are your thoughts? Do you share your birthdate on Facebook through your profile? How many birthday wishes did you get on your birthday? Or do you keep your birthdate private? If so, why? Have thoughts on this article you'd like to share? Leave a comment below or connect via Twitter or Facebook!
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