{"id":1063,"date":"2010-05-13T13:55:16","date_gmt":"2010-05-13T13:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/2010\/05\/birthdays-the-best-thing-about-facebook.html"},"modified":"2010-05-13T13:55:16","modified_gmt":"2010-05-13T13:55:16","slug":"birthdays-the-best-thing-about-facebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/05\/birthdays-the-best-thing-about-facebook.html","title":{"rendered":"Birthdays: The Best Thing About Facebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"birthday-cake.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>Folks, today is my birthday.  Yippie!<\/p>\n

This morning, when I woke up and logged onto my email, I saw 33 new messages, all “happy birthday” notes on my Facebook wall.  I know this is not an uncommon experience – it’s not my first Facebook birthday, but scrolling through them all, I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face.  Which is a very nice problem to have on one’s birthday, no?<\/p>\n

There was a note from my very first friend remembering the celebration we had for my third birthday.  Several from family members sending virtual hugs.  A bunch from friends I haven’t talked to in ages.  Smiles from colleagues past and present.<\/p>\n

I respond to each and every posting, and the exercise of doing so has me thinking that Facebook, for all its issues, really has birthdays right.  The process of scrolling down and writing different versions of “thank you” 30, 40 times, quickly answering the “how ya been?” inquiries, laughing over some shared memory, feeling flattered that someone you didn’t think cared took even a moment to wish you a happy–is so restorative, so much fun, and left me with such a sense of contentment and support.  <\/p>\n

Have you had the same experience of enjoying a Facebook birthday?  Are you grateful, as I am, for the chance to say “thank you” to so many people on such an auspicious day as the anniversary of the day you entered the world?  <\/p>\n

(image via: http:\/\/blogs.edweek.org\/<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Folks, today is my birthday.  Yippie! This morning, when I woke up and logged onto my email, I saw 33 new messages, all “happy birthday” notes on my Facebook wall.  I know this is not an uncommon experience – it’s not my first Facebook birthday, but scrolling through them all, I couldn’t wipe the smile…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,32,229],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-holly-lebowitz-rossi","category-positive-things","category-relationships"],"yoast_head":"\nBirthdays: The Best Thing About Facebook - Fresh Living<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/05\/birthdays-the-best-thing-about-facebook.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Birthdays: The Best Thing About Facebook - Fresh Living\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Folks, today is my birthday.  Yippie! 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A graduate of Cornell University and Harvard Divinity School, she has more than a decade of experience writing about religion and spirituality for Newsweek, The Washington Post, Spa Finder, Sojourners, Search, and many other publications. Her commentaries have also been heard on NPR\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153All Things Considered.\" When not at her desk, you can find her baking, in her garden, or rockin' out in water aerobics class. She lives in Arlington, Mass. Visit http:\/\/www.hollyrossi.com for more.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/author\/hrossi"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1063\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}