The Pavlovian Response To Seeing Birthday Announcements On Facebook
from the ding-happy-birthday-ding-happy-birthday dept
The famous experiment by Ivan Pavlov, which demonstrated classical conditioning, involved ringing a bell every time a dog was served food, and noting that after a few times of this, the dog associated the bell with food and salivated when the bell was rung. We've accidentally run a nearly identical experiment at home with my own dog, who is quite calm most of the time but barks whenever someone she doesn't recognize approaches our door. Since many of those people ring the doorbell, she now associates the doorbell with "time to bark." And she'll do so even if she's standing outside with me, with the door wide open, when I ring the doorbell.But, of course, dogs aren't the only ones subject to Pavlovian responses. A somewhat hilarious story in Slate from a few weeks ago demonstrates how birthday messages on Facebook seem to elicit the same sort of Pavlovian response from people. David Plotz noticed how "polluted" Facebook seemed to get with birthday wishes on the said day for any of your friends. He also realized that these messages didn't really feel all that authentic, since they felt "programmed" in response to the little Facebook bell. So he decided to run an experiment.
I was born on Jan. 31, but I've always wanted a summer birthday. I set my Facebook birthday for Monday, July 11. Then, after July 11, I reset it for Monday, July 25. Then I reset it again for Thursday, July 28. Facebook doesn't verify your birthday, and doesn't block you from commemorating it over and over again. If you were a true egomaniac, you could celebrate your Facebook birthday every day.He noted that for July 11th, he received 119 birthday wishes via Facebook. Four close friends were confused, but "most of them attributed the confusion to their own faulty memories." When July 25th came around, he received another 105 birthday wishes. The number of people suspecting something was up was nine. The really stunning thing:
Of the 105 birthday wishes, 45 of them—nearly half—came from people who had wished me a Facebook happy birthday two weeks earlier.On July 28th, just three days later, when it was his birthday again, he still ended up with 71 birthday wishes. 16 people noticed something was up. Though it appears lots of people still hadn't caught on:
Almost 30 people wished me a happy birthday on July 28 having already wished me a happy birthday on one of my previous non-birthdays. Sixteen people sent me Facebook birthday wishes on all three Facebook birthdays, not noting or perhaps not caring about the repetition. One friend even wished me four happy birthdays, congratulating me twice on one of my fake days. The messages from one of these three-time greeters, a friend I've never met named Barry P., were almost poignant.So, the next time you're feeling down, just trying ringing that doorbell and watching all your friends salivate in response, wishing you the very best...
On July 11, he wrote: "Wishing you a very happy birthday David & a wonderful year!"
On July 25, he upped it: "Wishing you a very happy birthday David & your best year ever!"
On July 28, the superlative was gone: "Wishing you a very happy birthday David & a terrific year!"
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: birthdays, pavlov, social networks
Companies: facebook
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
April Fools
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Barry P's explanation
Imagine, just one birthday every year
Ah, but there are three hundred and sixty four Facebook birthdays!
Precisely why I keep wishing you the best cheer
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Relates to one of my favourite Facebook "infographics"
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Work Smarter, not Harder
http://lifehacker.com/5835409/happybirthday-extension-send-out-b+day-wishes-on-facebook-so-you-d ont-have-to
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Work Smarter, not Harder
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Happy (un)birthday Mike
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Barry P's explanation
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Normally Mike is pretty good about pointing out that technology isn't the underlying problem, but he failed to do that here. Would this story have been any different if the same guy had walked around to his friends on those dates and said, "hey, it's my birthday!".
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
hd txt thm
wdnt b ne diff
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Then wait.
tick tick tick tick boom
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Wow
I'd never done anything quite to this level (repeated "birthdays"), but I have set my birthday to a fake date once and laughed at all the people who posted.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re:
It is an ignorant trope that Twitter is undermining discourse.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Work Smarter, not Harder
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Speaking of which, where do you see twitter mentioned. Kids have been texting since before twitter, by @ 14 yrs.
Girls average 80 texts a day. 1 every 18 minutes, not allowing for eating, sleeping, drinking...
http://www.dailytech.com/Study+Teen+Girls+Average+80+Texts+Per+Day/article18172.htm
Show us you're twits!© :) This is going to be my newest t-shirt.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Losing faith in humanity
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Hmm...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Hmm...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Hmm...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
clever
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: April Fools
[ link to this | view in thread ]
I did it every day for several months at the end of last year...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Birthday Messages
[ link to this | view in thread ]
automatic birthday wish
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Birthday Thank You sayings
Looking for Birthday Messages? Here on allbestmessages.co you will find Birthday Messages related messages here. Read our latest new collection of Birthday Messages, Birthday Facebook Status Msgs and Forwards, Fwds. visit us for more information http://www.allbestmessages.co/sms-text-messages/Birthday-Messages.php
[ link to this | view in thread ]
ideas for birthday gift for wife
Everyone would love to have the sophisticated and sleek leather duffle so you can consider it be one of the best https://newsstandme.com/get-unique-ideas-for-birthday-gift-for-wife ideas for birthday gift for wife In case if you plan a romantic weekend with your wife, then the bag gifted by you will be helpful for your wife.
[ link to this | view in thread ]