Happy Birthday?

With all this "friends" talk we've had going on throughout class about Facebook, and being connected, and really knowing someone through social media, I became interested in which of my "friends" really knew me. The most obvious way to test this, in my opinion, was to do the Birthday Test. Aka change my date of birth and see who knew I was lying. So, two days ago I changed my new birthday to September 15th. I've always wanted to have been born in the fall anyway.

This morning when I woke up and performed my daily social media check, I had forgotten that I'd made this minor switch to my profile and was quite surprised to have at least 10 new notifications with birthday messages. It gave me a good laugh that these same people, who had written on my wall just four months ago for my actual birthday, were back with their same birthday wishes. But who really keeps track of their "friend's" birthdays, right?

What really shocked me was what happened for the rest of the day when I wasn't connected  to a social network. I'd developed a theory in class that stated: People will be best friends with you online, but when the actual face-to-face situation comes up they will act like they barely know you. This theory was shattered when people were going out of their ways to say, "Happy Birthday, Joe!".  When I would tell them it wasn't my birthday and this was just a little test to see who actually knew, the common reaction I got was a very confused and slightly hurt facial expression. One girl even scowled and walked off; another boy just shook his head as if I had confessed to robbing a bank. Eventually I learned, and instead just said, "Thank you!" with a smile and we both went off on our merry ways. After all, when my actual birthday rolls around in the spring, they will have forgotten this little situation and be right back to their happy messaging. But what was it that bothered them so much about being lied to on Facebook? Could this theory of people being connected and feeling a sense of belonging on this popular network be true? I always thought it was bogus, but apparently, maybe it isn't.

When I got back to my dorm after dinner, as expected, I saw at least 70+ new posts on my wall. I briefly considered posting a status that it was a joke, but I feel that having 70+ people bitter at you over Facebook may be worse than facing the judgmental stares from the actual people. So I instead just pretended for a while and scrolled through the birthday posts. Could I do this little self esteem booster every month? Would people notice?

Not so sure they would...

As to finding out who really knew my date of birth, the results were somewhat sad. Among the ranks of college friends who had no clue were my cousins, co workers, my close high school friends, and even friends I had celebrated my real birthday with in person last spring. What I found extremely funny were the people who thought they would go the extra mile and text me instead of going with the herd and posting on my wall. Either way...they were wrong.

I never had high hopes for people actually knowing that I was lying. I mean most of the "friends" I have are simply people I can message to get coffee with sometime and talk about classes or go to a party with. Knowing someone's birthday in this day and age seems trivial. Who cares when you were born? As long as they like spending time with me and vice versa, I'm all good.

However, I can't forget to mention the special people who know my special day. My close friends, my mentors, my immediate family (thank goodness), and surprisingly an elementary school stalker I've managed to stay friends with. Congrats! You passed the Birthday Test! I'll take away the air quotes from "friends" when referring to you now.