In an effort to beat the pants off of Google+ make Facebook as "customizable" and "personalized" an experience as possible, the social network is now allowing moms-to-be to add "Expected: Child" to their profiles, complete with due date and chosen name, under the same section where you can list family members. They must figure that this way, expectant mothers can better/easier/more quickly communicate what's going on in their lives (or their "status") with their Facebook friends.
I'm not a fan. It's just too ... impersonal and unnecessary. A pregnancy, to me, seems like a very personal, intimate experience -- not something you need to broadcast to 500 of your not-so-closest "friends." (Let's face it, Facebook friends may be your friends, but for most of us, MANY of them are really just your "friends.") Sure, you're excited and you want to share with people you love, but there are better ways to do that.
Like in person, so you can see their face light up! Or over the phone, so you can hear the excitement in their voice? Maybe even Skype, if you can't get together in another way. Isn't it just a bit anti-climatic to have your besties or your mother-in-law find out while scrolling through their News Feed, and the only reaction you get from them is a "Like"?
If I've got to learn about a friend's pregnancy via Facebook, I'd rather see that Rachel Beth So-and-So posted an actual status update that says something along the lines of, "DH and I are expecting!! Due date: 12-4-11 <3" or "30 weeks along now!" than see that she added "Expected: Child" to her profile. There's something awkward, technical, and way too hands-off about how that looks! Like it ought to say, "Expected: Amazon package delivery." It's a kid, for cryin' out loud!
Your bundle of joy is a real-live person who deserves more than an "Expected: Child" profile update. They deserve to be introduced with some real FANFARE to the Internet ... once they're born ... via Photobucket, Picasa, Snapfish albums! And your loved ones deserve to learn the news in a warmer, more personal way, too. Don't get me wrong -- Facebook certainly serves its purpose in bringing people together. But when it comes to something as significant as a childbirth, I just don't think social media will ever compare to old-school technologies that bring us even closer -- like a happy phone call or lovely baby shower.
What do you think about this new "Expected: Baby" profile option on Facebook?
Image via Peter & Joyce Grace/Flickr
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Comments 17
I think it's just that: An option. If you don't like it, you don't have to update it.
I wouldn't use it as a way to announce a pregnancy, but I don't see anything wrong with it once your announcement is made wether that be done face to face or via facebook. To each their own.
I think posting it on FB is fine AFTER you've told the people deserving of a face to face or on the phone; grandparents-to-be, close relatives, close friends, whomever.
Beacuse of this, whenever we have our next one, MIL gets told last. She will call SIL right away and SIL will have it posted on FB before she even gets off the phone. Then how fair would it be that my husband's granny had to hear it from another cousin or family friend that they read on SIL's facebook that we're expecting?
Facebook just does it so they can throw more tailored ads at you. Less than 24 hours after I had changed my status from single to married, all the sidebar ads were about marriage and conceiving.
I wouldn't list an unborn child because anything could happen. It sure wouldn't be fun to list your expected child, have something happen (god forbid), remove the status, then have to field all the questions.
I know someone who posted she was pregnant as soon as she got a positive pregnancy test and a month later she miscarried.
@sarahAl: my mother is now at the end of the list...we told her, and instead of calling her mom or any family members (or waiting for me to do so) she posted a status on FB before we even left the driveway. So my grandma called me later because great aunt so and so called and told her. How frustrating!
If you are not the mom-to-be, you shouldn't be the first to break the news on FB.
Wonder if it's weird to have an expected child on there if I'm expecting to have it ten years from now?
To each her own!