Have I told you we should abolish Facebook?

Yesterday it was my birthday.

My family phoned me or just met me. Then there has been a handful of people who texted me on my mobile, mostly in the morning. I do not care how they remembered my birthday's date, what I care about is that they took the time and the money (for those who paid) to text me. I am not ashamed to admit I use myself both Facebook and my mobile phone agenda to keep track of birthdays, apart from certain ones that are quite stuck in my head. But what I liked is that those people, the ones who texted me, tried to think of something nice to write and they actually came up with something sweet, something you would fancy reading after waking up. Those were the people closer to me. Some of them even told me that it was Facebook that remembered them it was my birthday, but they actually sent me an SMS and did not use Facebook to write me.

Next there was the Facebook world. Usually, who is friends with me on Facebook also has my phone number, so they could have easily sent me a message with their greetings, or wrote me an email as some did indeed. A lot of people, instead, wrote on my Facebook wall for my birthday. There were schoolmates of 5 years or so ago, people from my middle school and even guys who are still with me at school and that, although they met me in the morning at school (either in class or through the corridors), wrote on Facebook instead of just telling me "Happy birthday" face to face. Strangely enough, the people who wished me a happy birthday by voice wrote it on Facebook too. There were even people I never met with whom I am only friend in a virtual manner, the people I usually see once a year at the seaside and do not really spend time with, people I knew in afternoon classes years ago with whom I did not actually have any real relationship.

You know, I do not really question their wishes, there is nothing bad in wishes as long as they are true and sincere. There were some people from whom I was glad to receive wishes, people whose messages contained my name and even some sort of joke that could kind of show we were friends, that we shared something. But that was a minority, the vast majority simply wrote "Happy birthday". Nothing more. Something a stranger could have easily said. And that is the point: if we are not much more that strangers I do not expect you to wish me happy birthday, it is something you are not supposed to do and for which I will not blame you.

I have already talked about how Facebook is killing real relationiships, and if you wanted a proof here it is. It is ok if you use Facebook just to keep track of your friends' birthdays, what is not fine is to use it to wish them happy birthday when you could use other, more intimate means like walking to him, texting him or writing some kind of email or private chat.

Do you like being wished happy birthday on Facebook?