And on Facebook they friend those people, and look into Facebook regularly. I don’t think the dynamics of birthday-remembering have changed. Computers already made it easier before Facebook, and diaries before computers.
I should have been clearer, sorry. Facebook is less inconvenient on two non-trivial counts: there are other reasons to open it (whereas a birthday diary will only have information related to birthdays and similar stuff), and it records the birthdays without any effort on your part.
But Facebook all but completely eliminated the trivial inconvenience. I’m under the impression that using diaries for that purpose was at least an order of magnitude rarer than using Facebook is now (though I’m generalizing from one example).
And on Facebook they friend those people, and look into Facebook regularly. I don’t think the dynamics of birthday-remembering have changed. Computers already made it easier before Facebook, and diaries before computers.
I should have been clearer, sorry. Facebook is less inconvenient on two non-trivial counts: there are other reasons to open it (whereas a birthday diary will only have information related to birthdays and similar stuff), and it records the birthdays without any effort on your part.
Most of the greetings I’ve seen are so generic I wonder if they have apps to automate them too.
But Facebook all but completely eliminated the trivial inconvenience. I’m under the impression that using diaries for that purpose was at least an order of magnitude rarer than using Facebook is now (though I’m generalizing from one example).