Facebook recently added "Expected: Child" to its list of friends and family tags. Photo: Louise KennerleyThe company also allows you to write in your due date and has optional space for the soon-to-be little one's name.
Finding out that a friend or former high school mate is pregnant on Facebook is nothing new. Who hasn't seen a tummy holding photo or an ultrasound printout or even just a morning sickness complaint come through on the daily feed? But that hasn't stopped the internet from going bonkers over this new information.
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Here's a snapshot of the Twitter-river on the topic:"This is just weird"
"This freaks me out"
"Oh lawls, whatz next list your ovulation calendar?!"
"Just me or is this creepy?"
When I heard the news I put in a call to a friend who is 10 weeks pregnant to see if she would consider adding an "Expected: Child" on her Facebook account.
The answer? A big fat no.
"I'm so curious to see who would even do that," she said.
She identified three main problems with this new designation.
1. It might hurt her friends' feelings to hear about her pregnancy over Facebook rather than in person.
2. The issues around having a miscarriage.
3. For people who have had trouble conceiving, Facebook was already a minefield of pregnancy announcements and new baby photos. Putting a countdown to baby right on one's own profile might be even more hurtful to these people.
On the other hand, if you tell your circle you are having a baby via Facebook, you save yourself from having the "Guess what?" conversation over and over. You can just sit back, breathe through your first trimester nausea and collect the "Congratulations!" wall posts.
Los Angeles Times
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/facebooks-new-expected-child-tag-sparks-outcry-20110804-1icwd.html#ixzz1U81SFkR2
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