 |
| You just got punk'd |
And so yesterday was April Fool's Day. I must admit I had never paid any particular attention to this day, nor do I treat it any different. But this year it's a little bit different, with the rise of Facebook usage among the netizens, I thought it would be interesting to do an experiment, particularly on the birthday notification function of Facebook.
I remember a few months ago me and a whole group of people from TEDxYouthKL were having a lunch celebration at TGI Fridays at the Gardens. So one of us came out with this idea of setting our birthday to the 1st if April this year, just for the "lulz". We wanted to see how many birthday wishes we could get.
And so we did, the few of us, setting our birthday to the 1st of April, some even set it a few days before (I did) just for it to seem more real.
The morning of the 1st, I logged in to find a whole wall of birthday wishes. To my surprise, I found out that there were at least 20 of my friends who shared the same "birthday" with me. I remember thinking - while still about 10am in the morning, with more than 40+ wishes - that this would be a funny day.
Funny day indeed it was. By the afternoon, I already have more than a hundred wishes. And I was laughing, amused by how many people were wishing me without knowing that it wasn't really my birthday, even if (if they took the effort to scroll down just a little to see) some of my friends were trolling on my way saying it's not my real birthday.
But then I grew a bit worried (or rather, disturbed), not because I was afraid that there are people who would take the joke too seriously (there were, as a matter of fact); it was because I felt like something is wrong with this.
 |
| Who you gonna call? |
As of today, I have a total of 190 birthday wishes on my Facebook wall. How did it get to 190? That is a lot of people!
And how many birthday wishes did I get from my friends, face-to-face? None. That's it. NONE. So what does this tell us?
I think this phenomenon speaks volume about how human interactions had changed over the last few years. It seems like people are relying too much on Facebook (I am guilty of this as well), which cannot be blamed when it does really brought much convenience to the way we connect with each other.
But to further extend the "abuse" to wishing other people "happy birthday"? I think that is just a tad too much. Whatever happened to the sincere and personalized wishes, when you really mean it when you wish your friends a happy birthday? But no, some people have this daily routine of looking up the list of people on the birthday notification, copy and paste "Happy Birthday ^^" on each of their wall, as if they meant it, as if they are obliged to do it.
Of course, not all people does that. I don't. And for some people, Facebook wishes may be the only viable choice (oversea, expensive call rate).
Maybe they are just being polite wishing everyone, but to be honest, some people may find it a bit annoying. I mean, do you really think they give a care if you sent wish or not?
That's something to think about.
Oh, and to those people who took the joke seriously. Come on man, you need a life. Like seriously. Getting upset over a Facebook prank is just too... Um... lulz... idk... Oh well... Not that I am bothered.
I guess that's all for today.
Oh, and if you are interested to know when is my real birthday (I'm being a bit narcissist here, of course you are not, why would you want to know?), just come to be and ask me personally ok? I don't care if you think I am a privacy freak, or hypocrite, or whatever. For me it's a sign of real friendship (knowing my birthday), that you really care enough to want to know. Putting it up on Facebook to let everyone know is just asking for unwanted attention on your birthday, unless you really like attention, that's another matter altogether.
Don't mind me. This is Brain Stew.
Till next time, cheers~
