One of my reasons for not signing up for a Facebook A/C all these years is because Facebook asks for the birthday of the registrant. Seriously? Why does anyone want to give his / her date of birth to just sign up with an online social website for casual fun? This was a big turn off for me when my kids told me about Facebook back in 2005. No, I don’t need Facebook to celebrate my birthday and reminds me that I’m closer to death as the year goes by. I don’t need my kids and friends to celebrate my birthday either. I have hated to be reminded of my birthday since I turned 21 many decades ago. Back then 21 sounded quite mature to me because I was only 1 year short from the last prime year of Chinese beauty. There is a Chinese saying, “There is no ugly woman in the 18-22 age group.” Now that I’m way over 65, I of course dread about celebrating my birthday even more than when I was 21. So why should I give Facebook my birthday? I don’t even give my birthday to my doctors. Where I live, I’m required to only give my doctors just my age. Why is Facebook so overreaching? Why does it want so much of my personal information? This is one thing I don’t understand why Facebook is so attractive to people. But after so many years of being hesitant about giving Facebook my birthday, I finally gave in and signed up for an account.
There are many security experts who advise people to not use their real birthdays to sign up with Facebook. But the problem with this is, Facebook every now and then locks up people’s accounts and demands them to submit government issued IDs to unlock. When that happens, your birthday on your Facebook account needs to match with that on your ID, or your account will be forever locked and you won’t have access to your family there or the photos you uploaded.
There is always risk in everything we do, even when we use a free service. So, whether you want to take the risk of being locked out of your Facebook account or being an identify theft victim during a data breach, determines whether you want to give Facebook your real birthday or a fake birthday. The choice is always yours.
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