I turned 52 in October 2019. This statement should please my best friend, who always objects to my propensity to declare myself the age I am for the year even if my birthday is still months away. She is all for accuracy especially because she is a year younger and has no wish to "advance" her age.
This
year, I thought I would remove my birth date from Facebook (FB) because I am really more a
lurker, just happy to "heart" or “like” the nice things that are happening to people,
congratulate them on their milestones and commiserate when they lose someone
dear to them.
At this age, I am also losing a lot of people I know, even those my age. I figured I might just as
well begin the phase-out on social media.
But then
my birthday came around and sister started the ball rolling by greeting me on
FB. Someone picked up on that and then a friend of that someone and soon
enough, I have a lot of birthday greetings in just minutes.
I am the
type of person who wants to respond to each and every greeting, but when you’re
with actual, physical people celebrating your birthday early in the morning with
breakfast, you can’t. You can’t ignore them because you’re on your phone.
So you
put it off and soon enough you’re going out and real life dictates that you
spend the time doing this and that so that you can actually leave the house
even as you sneak in a "heart" here and there to show the FB greeter that you
love their message, which you really do except that you can’t be physically
present but on the phone with the people who want to celebrate your birthday
with you.
So you
content yourself with “hearting” their greeting for the moment, all the time
feeling uncomfortable that you cannot thank them properly.
I have
only 660 FB friends. I cannot imagine how it is for those who have thousands.
But then
again, I am 52 and considered old school. Maybe in this age of social media, a “heart”
is really just enough.
Of
course, I say this after I have replied, singly or in groups, to the birthday
greetings that I “hearted” a while back.
