The Whatsappification of Birthday Wishes

In the initial years of Facebook, it was wonderful to get birthday wishes from so many people. The reach was a new high beyond your family and friends wishing you. Sometimes, you also had Facebook-only friends wish you and it was very cool especially if was it from someone of the opposite sex.

Facebook also made sure your friends and cousins never missed your birthdays by reminding them of your birthday every time they opened the App (or the website platform in those days).

These were the times when the traditional way of wishing (in person or through a phone call) was?amplified by the wishes on Facebook.

Times have changed now. We live in a digital world where we spend most of our time on social media. The wishes on?Facebook and Whatsapp have now become the primary channels of birthday wishes.

A phone call on your birthday is special.?That’s the one day where your friends and cousins would call and wish you with the discussion focused on you, your day, and your celebrations.

You could keep your friends and cousins waiting to talk to you with the?‘phone is busy’?ring because it was your birthday, and they would call you back. They wouldn’t mind calling you back because the onus was on them to wish you on your birthday. Of course, they did it also because they wanted the same treatment to be reciprocated to them on their birthdays.

In the last few years, with our busy schedules, a birthday?Whatsapp message has almost replaced ‘the phone call’?and the need for family and friends to call and wish you. Now, it’s only your parents and/or siblings who call you on your birthday with the rest choosing the easier option of a Whatsapp message.

While Facebook and WhatsApp have ensured that you don’t miss birthdays any longer, birthday wishes on WhatsApp groups are also more forced than natural. Very often, you are wishing a person because so many others in the group have already wished him or her.?It’s a social norm in a WhatsApp group.

Wishing someone on Whatsapp is like checking a particular date on the cyclical and never-ending checklist of year-long birthdays.

Also, a birthday wish on a Whatsapp group is usually not personal. It’s mostly the?same ‘Happy birthday to you’ message with the default set of emoticons.?There's nothing beyond it.

Remember, we now have the more engaging option of a video call, but our schedules have made?Whatsapp message our preferred default medium.

It’s not just the giver of birthday wishes who has changed.?It’s also the receiver.

As a receiver, it’s unlikely that you thank each of the wishers individually. It’s usually ‘one’ thank you message per group. Reactions on Whatsapp and Facebook have also made that?‘thank you’?message redundant. With a like or a love reaction to each message, the receiver is likely to feel that he or she has already acknowledged and thanked the person who wished him.

Also, if you are working on your birthday then perhaps you are not even able to answer the calls when your friends and cousins call you. In this context, the?asynchronous birthday wishes on WhatsApp?seem to perfectly complement our busy schedules since you can respond when you find time.

Facebook and Whatsapp have amplified the reach of birthday wishes. But they have taken away the emotional connection that a phone call always provides.

Remember you are?just a press of a button away?on your mobile phone from calling someone but then we seem to have created a world where we lack the mind space to engage with our friends and cousins like good old times.

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