To Post or Not to Post

Two weeks ago, I was Skyping with my cousin in Italy. Her daughter was born Feb. 1 and I still hadn’t seen a picture of her. How dare they NOT post pics of their first born on Facebook!? I couldn’t believe it!

When my daughter was born, our friends and family around the globe knew her name and weight before my own parents did….and they were just a few feet away from us in the hospital waiting room!

I couldn’t believe that, in this day and age, my cousin hadn’t even updated her status or tweeted about her mini-me who was born during an atypical snowstorm in Rome. I expected to see dozens of pictures of my new niece wearing a little pink bonnet as epic snowflakes framed her from the hospital window. This is 2012 isn’t it?!

Alas, that didn’t happen. Her parents are more private. They don’t believe in Twitter and only check their Facebook pages once in a blue moon. Furthermore, they want to keep their daughter’s pictures, milestones and birthdays private as well.

This all got me to thinking. Should I take down the pictures I’ve posted of my family on Facebook? Have we already gone too far as a society in depriving people of their privacy? What will social media be like when my daughter is a teenager?

I very hesitantly joined Facebook back in 2007. I remember talking to friends about it and expressing my disgust as I didn’t see the point in having the world know my business. They dared me to join. I complied. I became addicted.

That summer, I met my husband and our friends got to see the quick progression of our relationship through our status updates….”In a Relationship with…” “Engaged to”. I got excited every time I saw a “Like” and added a Wedding Countdown calendar on my homepage. And when I had a baby, I loved that I had “virtually” reconnected with 80% of my all-female high school class. I hadn’t heard from many of these women in years yet all of a sudden, we seemed to be going through the same thing….pregnancies, diaper rashes, sleepless nights….all via our computers.

Choosing to share pictures or status updates of my life is my choice, but is it right for me to post pictures of my daughter on Facebook? I don’t know what the answer to that is. And what about introducing her to technology? She’s not even two but can already differentiate between my cell phone, ITouch and IPad. She doesn’t know how to “work” the IPad yet, but definitely knows it’s “cooler” than my prehistoric flip phone!

She loves books…real ones…and I’d like to keep it that way. I worry that by the time she’s in grade school, kids won’t have school books anymore but rather be obligated to carry around Kindles or IPads.

In short, I hope she doesn’t get sucked into Facebook like her mommy did. I hope she enjoys being a kid and playing with dirt and butterflies. I guess it’s my job to keep her on track. In the meantime, I take comfort in knowing that she’d rather read the CVS sale pamphlet than reach for my IPad when she’s sitting in her car seat. Maybe I am doing something right.