Good manners, of course, are just artifice—formalized rituals, designed for social lubrication, that mean nothing. From the cotillion curtsey to the subway-train “excuse me,” they create automatic ...

I mentioned my birthday and her eyes went wide. “Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry!” My friend stopped, gasped. Threw her arms around me in a hug. “I forgot to post on your wall!” I hugged back, smiling. Just ...

For as long as I can remember, Facebook has dedicated prime real estate—the screen’s upper right corner, usually—to alerting you of your friends’ birthdays. And for a while there, the Facebook ...

(CNN) -- Facebook really wants people to keep wishing each other a happy birthday on the social network, so it's launching a new birthday feature and throwing it a party to celebrate. Called Birthday ...

(CNN) -- Facebook really wants people to keep wishing each other a happy birthday on the social network, so it's launching a new birthday feature and throwing it a party to celebrate. Called Birthday ...

It happens every year whether you want it to or not: your Facebook wall is assaulted by people you haven't heard from in six years with birthday greetings. The one-line exclamations tend to be the ...

Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. is the editor of the Platformer newsletter and cohost of the Hard Fork podcast. The text messages began arriving ...

Roughly 1 in 30 Facebook users tells someone Happy Birthday each day, showing Facebook’s first major emergent behavior is still going strong. Now Facebook is equipping the 45 million people sending ...

Those birthday fundraisers on Facebook have brought in a billion dollars for charities, but some Facebook users think the ubiquitous appeals are getting to be too much of a good thing. On Facebook, ...

It happens every year whether you want it to or not: your Facebook wall is assaulted by people you haven't heard from in six years with birthday greetings. The one-line exclamations tend to be the ...