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Your Birthday Wall Post Isn't Impressing Anyone

Technology makes it too easy to send insincere greetings

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Nov 2, 2009 2:35 PM CST

(Newser) – Vikki Ortiz Healy got a birthday kiss from her husband, a call from her sister, baked goods from her co-workers. She figured that’d be it. Then she logged onto Facebook—and found more than 60 messages from random acquaintances. She started to suspect that maybe, just maybe, they were "prompted by the computerized birthday reminders available today and not by their own genuine warm thoughts."

Facebook is the worst offender, but Outlook will remind you, too, and Hallmark will even send greetings automatically, so “if you drop dead, your friends will still receive a card from you, you thoughtful corpse.” Healy began asking the well-wishers if they had acted on their own; everyone copped to using electronic reminders but assured her they meant it. Overwhelmed and resigned, she responded to everyone with a single wall post, “kind of a one-click-reaches-them-all ‘Thank you.’”

[Images (1)]

[Quotes (1)]

In this photo illustration the Social networking site Facebook is displayed on a laptop screen on March 25, 2009 in London, England. (Getty Images)

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I started to feel like a pawn, a mere inbox for empty greetings fired off by people prompted by computerized birthday reminders. - Vikki Ortiz Healy

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 10 comments

Animator

Nov 3, 2009 11:19 AM CST

Aside from the morbidity of a deathbed happy birthday card, personal assistants have been helping execs remember important dates for ages. So yeah, me with my blackberry, likes the fact I don't need to remember that one kid from high school's birthday, BUT I can still seem semi-genuine and say happy birthday man. :\

cochiserocks

Nov 3, 2009 10:03 AM CST

er....I have such a bad memory, I actually quite like that I have managed to pop something in the post in time or posted something on the wall of a good friend because, unless they're having a party, or we've somehow exchanged dates of birth in some random way. I would not have done it. Does that make me a bad person? Course not! Stupid article.

cochiserocks

Nov 3, 2009 7:13 AM CST

A regular Bill Hicks aint he..

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Technology • Lifestyle

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Your Birthday Wall Post Isn't Impressing Anyone