"Please Don't Let People Know It's My Birthday"...MZ Generation Members Turn Off Their Phones and Go Off the Grid, and AKMU's Lee Su-hyun Agrees

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[Financial News] Lee Su-hyun, a member of AKMU, recently said on her YouTube channel, "The first thing I do on my birthday is turn off my phone. At 12 a.m. the night before, I switch it to Do Not Disturb mode."
At first glance, that may seem like a way of avoiding congratulations. But online, many users have responded positively, saying, "I totally relate" and "Birthdays are work too."
In the past, birthdays were a day for close family and friends to gather, blow out the candles on a cake, and celebrate together. But with the rise of social networking service (SNS) platforms and messengers, people now learn about other people's birthdays even when they would rather not know. As a result, some say birthday greetings have turned into a kind of mass-produced ritual.
In the video, Lee said, "I'm very grateful to everyone who congratulates me, but if I have to reply one by one and take every call, I end up spending the whole day doing just that." She added with a laugh, "I usually catch up on all the delayed replies the next day, so please don't think too badly of me."
Many internet users strongly related to her confession. Those who described themselves as introverts, or the 'I' type in MBTI, left comments such as, "Do Not Disturb mode is a must" and "I hope no one wishes me a happy birthday, but I can't tell people not to contact me, so I reply two days later."
A 23-year-old college student surnamed Choi also told Yonhap News Agency, "I'm not a celebrity, just an ordinary person, but on my birthday I put off replying to messages and answer them all at once in the evening." He added, "Even one-time team members I wasn't close to reach out. I'm grateful, but honestly, responding to everyone individually is exhausting."
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For office workers, birthday greetings can feel like yet another task. Apps such as KakaoTalk offer birthday notification services by default, so the birthdays of countless people whose numbers were saved for work appear every day.
An office worker surnamed Lee, 30, said, "I have more than 300 contacts saved for work, and when congratulations come from people I'm not very close to, I often want to avoid replying because it feels burdensome." Another office worker surnamed Hong, 29, said, "I turned off my own birthday notifications because I didn't want to receive such formal congratulations."
Exchanging gifticons through SNS has also become a kind of reciprocal obligation, adding to the pressure. Online communities are filled with posts such as, "I hide my birthday and don't celebrate other people's birthdays either. That's more comfortable," and "If someone sends me a birthday coupon, I feel pressured to repay it later, so it's better not to receive or give them at all."
Still, some see value in the culture of using a birthday as an excuse to check in and reconnect after a long time. A 45-year-old office worker surnamed Jeong said, "Isn't it something to be grateful for when people remember you and reach out despite being busy?" He added, "As you get older, there are fewer people left to celebrate with you, so you should enjoy the attention you have now."
Experts explain the tendency to go off the grid on birthdays as a sign of emotional exhaustion in today's busy society.
Myung Ho Lim, a psychology professor at Dankook University, told Yonhap News Agency, "Modern people are already emotionally drained because they have too many tasks and choices to deal with in daily life." He added, "When formal contact from relationships that are not very close is layered on top of that, people come to see it as stress."
moon@fnnews.com Moon Young-jin Reporter