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Recently I experienced my 28th birthday, not that actively wanted to head for it, but well, as it happens, birthdays are somehow repetitive and that's interesting every year to see how many people actually congratulate you on your birthday.

Of course, you can forget about it, but in this day and age, anyone who is logged into a social network like Facebook or LinkedIn gets a notification of a contact's birthday. Facebook even has a Birthday page for own contacts, broken down when and who celebrates his next birthday, depending on the setting even the age.

LinkedIn doesn't have this, but there are notifications and I was personally a bit upset that more friends from Africa congratulated me via WhatsApp than my more than 500 business contacts.

5, a whole 5 people have contacted me, 2 from China with whom I have little to little contact, one contact from Pakistan and 2 from Germany with whom I share professional interests.

Isn't that sad? I think so, because the business world is not only about numbers and money, but also about interpersonal relationships. I don't have to know a person particularly well, I don't even have to agree on a subject, but I do take the time to write to the person who is important to me. Of course, in these 500 contacts I also have people with whom I have no contact, who never answer me or are simply not online or only occasionally read my opinion. That doesn't bother me. But I have at least 50 people on LinkedIn who are important to me and maintaining contact is relevant to me. Of these 50 people, none has written to me.

Even people I work with haven't contacted me, even though I've even noted their birthday in my contact information and Google reminds me too.

Do people just not care about me?

I don't know, but even on Facebook some of my friends from Tunisia didn't get a notification that it was my birthday. It's easy to blame Facebook or LinkedIn now, so it's even more important that we don't just rely on them, but actively engage with our fellow human beings, with whom we work, but also maintain friendships and care. Whether it's checking in on family or whether that friend is in good health.

Do yourselves and your contacts the favor, make yourselves thoughts to the birthday. It's a small effort to set a repeating reminder in the calendar, but in return your contact or friend will appreciate it more in the long run and then everyone will be happy and no one will be hurt. And it doesn't even cost you money to write happy birthday to a person.

Therefore check your Notification settings on LinkedIn and that your birthday at least for your contacts can be viewed, this is the only way LinkedIn can notify you.

Facebook allows you to set your birthday via your profile and what information should be available to whom, this is the only way your friends will receive a notification from Facebook.

It's not hard to be a good person and wish someone a happy birthday. The easier it is not to worry and lose friendships, and then the harder it is to apologize.

Use your digital calendar to get birthday reminders.

There is no excuse today for such social misconduct when you have