As a BBM(blackberry
messenger) tradition, you give your contacts weeks in advance update of your
birthday via your PM(personal message). When it is a day to the day, it becomes
hourly update in form of a countdown to the day. When the twelfth hour finally
comes, your PM is then updated to things like ‘it’s my birthday!’ ‘thank God
for adding another year to my life’ and so on...all to make it known to your
contacts that it is your big day.
For the rest of the day, the celebrant has to
use as many of his or her personal pictures as his or her DP(display picture)
so as to allow contacts save them and celebrate em by using em as their own DP
as well. This really isn’t compulsory and so not everyone really does it this
way but a bulk of us using a blackberry device have our birthday on BBM this
way.
When I started using a
blackberry, like expected, I followed the way things were done because
virtually everyone was doing it this way. Over the years, I realised this whole
pattern was an error. You don’t get to know your real pals this way. You don’t
get to know who remembers your birthday or not, who has at least a picture of
you on his device or not. Not like bulk of this is really important but I just
really wanted to change things. I wanted to know my ‘real reals’.
It was my birthday two
days ago. I sure did change things this time. All through last week, I had no
update concerning my birthday. I took down my picture from my DP and used
random pictures. A night to my birthday, or more like a day to my birthday, I
used quite a number of my pictures as my DP but there weren’t accompanied by
any PMs. This was me still being nice enough to allow anyone who didn’t have my
picture but remembered it was my birthday the next day, save some. Few hours to
mid-night, I took my picture down again. Tick, tick, tick and mid night came
alas. I updated my PM with a very vague PM. To my surprise a lot of my contacts
remembered and were already celebrating me on their DPs and PMs. Of cause as
expected, there were still a few who weren’t and had obviously forgotten. One
of which was a close family friend. At about some minutes pasted midnight, she
pinged me to wish me a happy birthday. The next message I saw was her asking me
for my picture. Uhn? If any other person did this, it would be okay but not
you. You celebrate with me every year and we go to photo studios to take
pictures together. What happened to the pictures you have been using the other
years? I’m certain your phone is in good order and your SD card is intact. I
just simply ended the chat. At dawn, almost all of my contacts were already
celebrating me. Quite a number did sincerely remember. The others probably have
contacts in common with me from which they were remembered. Some others, all thanks
to facebook, remembered or were reminded.
When it was noon, I
then put up a picture of me and a PM that somehow mentioned it was my birthday.
The very next second, my phone went nuts with messages. The shock the other 1%
of my contact faced knowing it was my birthday and they had been chatting with
me all morning was hilarious. Because they didn’t have pictures of me before
that day, the picture I was using at the time was what they all started using.
I sure was having a good laugh.
Don’t get me wrong. Like I said, it really
isn’t important whether or not I or anyone is wished a happy birthday. My aims
were to see if my contacts would remember it was my birthday and to have a good
laugh.
Here are a few pointers if you find yourself in a situation like this:
*don’t ever ask the celebrant on his or her birthday for their
picture. Find a way to get it somehow even if you don’t share contacts in
common. Facebook could help.
*the blackberry phone is programmed in a way that all your facebook
friend’s birth date is highlighted on your blackberry calendar. Check your
calendar at the beginning of every month. It would save you the drama.
*a lot of persons, after finder out late about a contacts birthday
would ping them and say ‘why didn’t you tell me it was your birthday?’. Never make
this silly error. Why would i ping all of my contacts to inform them it is my
birthday when I am not inviting them for a party.
*nicely apologise, “happy birthday mr xoxo. Sorry this is coming
late”. This is a whole lot better than putting happy birthday mr xoxo at night
when the day is past gone.
*lastly, there is always that one contact who no matter d publicity
you do before your birthday, never wishes you a happy birthday. Year after
year. Kindly go to the option button, scroll down, there is this word you would
find “DELETE”. Please use is. They don’t deserve to have you on their contact
list. In most cases, these are the people that send ‘broadcast messages’ the
most.
P.S: in all, be sure to make sure you have fun on that your special
day with or without the wishes of the people in your circle.
GOD BLESS YOU!
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