A social experiment.
How many birthdays can one person celebrate in a year before people catch on?
My guess. Three.
The funny thing is that people who were actually AT MY BIRTHDAY PARTY less than two months ago are still wishing me the best this morning on, this, my third birthday of the year.
Fascinating.
You see, every couple of months I've been quietly changing my birth date on Facebook. And every couple of months THE SAME PEOPLE are wishing me a happy birthday.
The messages on my wall are wonderfully 'personal'... such as "Wow! Same day as me!" (Nope.) or "I always knew you and I get along because we're both August babies" (I'm not one. And we really don't get along.)
We use birthdays as a form of identification and as a secure means of checking legal age, social qualification and astrological sign.
"What is your birthday?" is the question that is generally used to differentiate similar people with the same name who are mistakenly on the no-fly list.
It's on those forms you hand in at customs at the airport. It's how people choose their lucky lottery numbers. When timed correctly, it's good for a free piece of cake at your favorite chain restaurant.
Birthdays are probably not the most static and secure piece of personal information.
(1) Who's going to prove you wrong? There's no real way to prove what DAY someone was born on.
(2) People generally have no memory for remembering occasions for which they were not a part.
(3) People like the positive feeling and feedback that they get when they acknowledge another person regardless of whether or not the reason for the praise is valid.
It seems to be a pretty serious social taboo to mess with your date of birth.
"I know that's not really your birthday."
Come on. Do you have anything to suggest that the date which I am referring to my birthday now is any more or less valid that the date I may have told you before?
Life goes on... it just gets harder and harder to blow out all the candles on the cake.
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