Yesterday I turned the big four-oh and, as generally happens on birthdays (even blog birthdays), a bunch of family, friends, connections, clients and colleagues reached out to wish me well. For the past couple of years, a number of people -- particularly my so-called ambient friends (social media geeks, blog readers, the people I'm only connected to by means of social networks) -- used digital channels to say "hey," but I could always expect at least a dozen analog cards and calls. You know the kinds I mean: paper cards in stamped envelopes and landline phone calls that actually require you to talk to the other person.
This year, I probably 'heard' from more people than ever before, but I received just a few cards and calls (and all of those were from immediate family.) Now, I don't have a big family and we're not especially close -- so I didn't expect a barrage of cards and calls. But on the flipside, I didn't expect so many people to reach out at all. Yeah yeah yeah, I know, in this digital age we're all connected and my birth date -- like just about everything about me -- is "out there." But there was no big fanfare. Just a line in my Facebook profile and a casual mention buried in a Tweet about Age of Conversation 2 -- and almost 100 of you took a few moments out of your day to wish me a happy birthday.
I'm glad you did. It was great to hear from everyone.
For anyone interested in this kind of thing (who am I kidding? you're all interested in this kind of thing), here's the rundown:
- 61 Facebook messages, including a few FB gifts
- 23 Tweets
- 7 emails
- 3 phone calls
- 3 old school paper cards
- 1 song dedication on blip.fm
- 1 SMS
Plus 1 great, lazy day and a fantastic birthday dinner (complete with a 13-cupcake surprise.) And for the 37th consecutive year, my younger brother forgot my birthday altogether. Oh well, you can't win them all.
