Seriously. With all of the Myspaces, Facebooks, and Google Calenders that can all interface with your phone, email, or maybe even your toaster, there is no reason to forget someone.
In my recent reading of Never Eat Alone, there was a section just about Birthdays. How people become so jaded. I have always felt weird telling someone aside from my own immediate family a hearty ‘Happy Birthday’. When a Myspace comes up, or I see many of my Twitter friends giving the big HB openly, I was always afraid of feeling the “me to” effect of tagging along. I had enough trouble remembering relative’s birthdays without the help from my wife. Even the exact date of my best friend’s after ten year escaped me (but I was always close enough to plan…and maybe ask again.
But this past birthday for me, I couldn’t imagine how many people just dropped a quick line.
And it felt good.
So in this world of social media, what could be more social than the most important “personal holiday” there is? There are less excuses for it to slip your mind these days. I have Google Calendar setup to remind me of the big personal friend birthdays. So here’s hoping I haven’t moved on from the service, or at least exported all of this, by the time all these birthdays come back around in a year.
Do you reach out for birthdays? Do you have a system, or is your mind a steel trap? It’s recommended you do this with your business contacts, but should we worry about sincerity in these sorts of things?
I agree that this is something that should be done. I’ve got birthday’s setup in Apple Address book and really integrates well with ical. I haven’t kept up as much as I normal would in this realm but a call or a note is always pleasant especially when it is unexpected.