Facebook Birthday Protocol?

[Yeshuasdaughter]

I don't spend a lot of time on facebook. Mostly, I use it for keeping ties with distant relatives and old family friends.

There are sweet old ladies from my churches as friends, and also moms from my daughter's scouting days.

I also have friends and acquaintances from trade school on there.

I was blessed to receive several identical birthday wishes.

Herein lies the problem. The messages are public. Most of the messages are identical. Some of the birthday wishes are from trade school acquaintances, living in the same dorm, or something like that, whom I hardly remember, to be honest, and who hardly remember me. They were only saying "Happy Birthday", because of an auto generated prompt from facebook. But other messages are from close relatives or family friends.

Other than a couple personalized messages, my facebook wall looks like this:

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!



What is the proper polite way to respond to all of these greetings? I don't want to seem rude, by responding with "Thank you" to each one. I want it to show the true fact that I am very grateful for each person and their message, even if I hardly know most of the senders.

And how do I make sure that cousins I haven't seen in twenty or thirty years are especially thanked more than anyone else, without the acquaintances feeling unappreciated? I want to thank the relatives, all uniquely, but without leaving out the others.

Like I said, I am well aware that the birthday wishes were mostly due to an auto-generated prompt. But still, it means so much to me. How does one navigate the world of social obligation after several kind remembrances of one's special day, on social media?

 

[AdamG]

I'll usually wait for the day after, and then say something like "Thanks to all who wished me good wishes." or something. Doesn't leave anyone out, and is a single statement.
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(edit) if you want to respond individually, "thanks" is fine as well. Because honestly, some of those people do not even know who you are. I'm not big on FB for that and no longer post my b-day and no longer make public posts. But when I did, ugh the b-days were the worst.

 

[AdamG]

haha, also when I do get b-day notifications for others, I usually don't respond. But there are a couple people I do actually keep in contact with on FB, so instead of the boring old "happy birthday" I'll say something like "Happy anniversary of your womb expulsion" or something. Just to keep it interesting.
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My favorite one, which of course I cannot repeat (because what's the point of being original then?):
"It is the anniversary of your first eviction. Congratulations on your continued self sufficiency."

 

[LadyS]

Agree with @AdamG . I've also stopped using FB as a social tool but still get bday messages. I usually 'like' every message posted and in the past I've thanked everyone at the end the day for all the messages in a public post.

 

[Progster]

You can turn off the automatic birthday reminders on FB. I did, and now I only get messages from those who remember without the reminder, which is more meaningful.

Before I disabled the reminder, I just 'liked' the generic happy birthday messages, and responded to the more thoughtful ones with a longer comment.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

I don't mind having the auto reminders on. I think it's nice to see old names pop up with a friendly message. Even if we never were close.

It's just that I didn't know how to thank the people in my family without making the others feel left out. And also I don't know how to thank each person individually, if most of their messages were the exact same thing, all in a row, publically.

 

[AdamG]

Just to re-iterate in different words. Everybody who wishes you a happy b-day on Facebook, knows that it is Facebook. Anyone upset for a slight on on a Facebook birthday wish, does not really understand Facebook. It is not real life.
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I unfriended my immediate family (before I mostly dropped FB) at all. Because my mom would bring up random little things I said on FB for whatever reason. And it was a boundary issue. She wouldn't understand that it is an online social media for me to let off steam. So, I fixed that issue.

 

[Au Naturel]

I just click the like button.