By George Schroeder | LTVN Executive Producer
All too often, you’re clicking through Instagram stories when, all of a sudden, you realize it’s someone’s birthday, and your thumbs do their best impression of a machine gun as you tap through the same birthday wishes 65 times.
Let’s start here: In no way am I suggesting that this is a bad thing to do. I literally just posted about two birthdays this week. It’s fun to support your friends and family in this way. On the flip side of the coin, it’s very fun to open Instagram on your birthday and see that eight people have tagged you on their stories.
Generally, it’s good and harmless. But here’s where the train leaves the rails.
While most of the time, birthday reposts are about five to 10 stories, they can quickly devolve into a generic, hollow action purposed for alternative motives.
This is an opinion article. This is my opinion. Take it with a grain of salt, please.
Many people likely post for someone’s birthday when they otherwise may not have, just based on how many other people are doing it.
If, throughout the day, one of your friends is receiving post after post after post, you are far more inclined to make a post of your own. You’ll be a bad friend if you just text or call them privately, right? Obviously.
If you don’t really have anything prepared to launch right at midnight or early in the morning, you’re scrambling to put something together to make sure you’re not left out. That’s sort of empty, isn’t it? Is it about them or you at that point? Just text them or call them.
I always enjoy the “I love them more than you do” game people love to play as well. I can’t tell you how many of “the most loving” and “the sweetest” people I apparently know. I’m all for wishing a happy birthday, but once again, at what point is a long, public ode to someone more about the person sending it than the one receiving it? Just text them or call them and tell them all that privately — I promise it will mean so much more.
Think about it: When you hit that long strand of Instagram stories wishing someone a happy birthday, do you care? Do you stop to read all the messages? Probably not. No one is doing it for you either.
Of course, this does not just cause problems for those posting about birthdays. Obviously, it also causes issues for those reposting.
It’s an interesting social phenomenon. I am certainly guilty of valuing my worth based on social media, and the number of times I can repost people’s “happy birthdays” doesn’t help.
This can cause a myriad of problems. You have to repost absolutely everything, or you’ll leave someone out. You may also be comparing how many you receive to how many someone else receives.
It’s very easy to simply place too much emphasis on birthday stories. If the number varies significantly from year to year and you place too much value on it, it will be very easy to inflate or deflate your self-worth.
All I’m saying is this: Feel free to post for your friends, because they definitely appreciate it. Make sure you’re posting for them and not for yourself. A call or a text can be just as meaningful — and often far more so.
Don’t find your value in social media, and certainly don’t gauge the success of your big day by the number of notifications you receive on Instagram.
