| HN Mirror

Could probably rephrase this, as a nice sentiment can be very nice with no point at all. But the "happy birthday!" messages on facebook, imo, have lost their meaning and relevance a long time ago. There's no thought or effort that goes into this action. In the early stages of facebook, there was still a couple more steps that had to be taken to get that message to the old acquaintance. Thus, albeit small, a little more meaning. "Oh, frank, he actually took those couple steps, thats so nice."

Now, as a society, as well as on facebook, we're a step away from automating our wishing people happy birthdays. That progression is what is slowly chipping away at that "nice sentiment." For all I know, you write heartfelt messages to old acquaintances, leaving them feeling awesome that you cared to write to them on such a day. But the vast majority don't, facebook tells them to say happy bday to these people [list of names]. Without even leaving the page, and following exactly what facebook tells you to say, you've said the most generic thing you can possibly say to someone on their birthday.And to top it off, you haven't said anything to that person since last year on that day. And again, by "you", I mean the majority of people, not you personally.

The occasional person will go the "extra mile" sticking the persons name at the end of the message, or saying something like "hope you're doing well!"..It's just an illusion that that doesn't mean much of anything. I'm not saying I hate getting 100s of "Happy bday's" from people I don't talk to or, in a lot of cases, even know. Or that people are assholes for routinely wishing every single person on their friends list a big happy birthday. But the sentiment really isn't even there anymore, to me. All facebook has done for us, as far as birthdays and keeping in touch with old acquaintances in this manner is concerned, is make the actual efforts, like phone calls and real personal messages, even more valuable.