My nieces now want to do everything on TikTok and Instagram for their birthdays, nothing like what we used to do. Is it normal that young people don't want traditional celebrations anymore and prefer to make content for social media instead?
For many young people, social media has become a central part of how they live and share moments, so seeing it as a tool for celebrations is pretty logical. It doesn't mean they reject everything traditional - rather, they mix it: they want the gathering with friends and family, but also to document and share it because that's how they communicate. It's almost like having a photo album, but live and public.
The key point is that you don't have to see it as "all or nothing." Your nieces can enjoy a family meal, cake, gifts and everything else, and at the same time record short clips or do live streams if they feel like it. In fact, what often happens is that at first they give a lot of importance to the content, but during the celebration they forget about their phone because they're actually enjoying the people around them. Sometimes it's worth letting them do it their way, even if it seems odd to us, because after all the celebration is still about them - just in a format that makes sense for their generation.
If you want to keep traditions that matter to your family, try incorporating them in a way that also works for social media if they want: nice group photos, a video with messages from people who can't be there, that kind of thing. In the end we all want the same thing: for the people who matter to us to feel special on their day.
Your nieces aren't wrong - for them, a birthday and sharing it on social media are basically the same thing, so it's not that they're rejecting the celebration, it's just that they're experiencing it differently. What maybe hurts is that the private ritual (cake with family, homemade photos) took a backseat, but the truth is they're still celebrating, just the "audience" shifted from the living room to thousands of followers. You could try asking them to capture certain moments without everything being for the camera - sometimes teenagers dial it back if you suggest something that's actually fun *for them* and not just shareable.
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