The saying ‘there is nothing new under the sun’ has never been truer and more relevant like it is now in today’s social media dominated world. There is no limit to what people post, say or comment on these days. There is a lot to say about social media and its issues but let’s just focus on one topic for now: posting pictures of children on social media! Let’s go through the life of the real mummies of social media.
There is a wide spectrum in terms of the activities going on, from those parents who are totally anti-social media to the ones who have full-blown dedicated pages for their babies. My take is that let everyone do whatever pleases and makes them happy. Your page, your baby, your life! I have observed at least four different groups of parents on social media Instagram.
Completely anti-social media
There are three different sets of people in this group – The non-active but keen observers group don’t post much but they enjoy the updates of the regular posters. They have all their privacy settings on all the platforms on locked down; you cannot tag them on anything they don’t want to be tagged on, as they have to accept it first (Facebook). We may get the occasional selfies or OOTD picture to remind us that they are well and doing okay.
When they are pregnant, they will give no clue away that they are expecting a baby. We may even still get the random post of an old picture a day to their EDD and then suddenly, we get that ‘dangle a carrot’ picture of newborn fresh fingers that keep us wanting more but believe me, that is all we are ever going to get.
Active social media users post pictures regularly. We watch their instant stories and it feels like we literally are part of their lives. They let us know when they are pregnant early on and we get spoiled with all sorts of baby bump shots and professional maternity photo shoots. We even start to feel like a part of that pregnancy because we are kept updated with cravings and peeves all through the journey but as soon as the baby arrives, we are cut off! Yes, we get the picture of newborn fresh fingers that keep us wanting more but we still won’t get that photo we want. Although, because of how active they are on social media, we get an occasional peek of the back of baby’s head, their full outfits with the face covered with emoji, their beautiful hair from the back and that’s it! Such tease
There is a third group in this category who hardly post any picture, no pregnancy picture and no baby photo, not even one, but don’t be deceived, they are just like the rest of us, they surely check social media to see what you lots are posting.
Average Social Media
These groups often battle with themselves whether or not they post too much. They often go through posting phases, we see beautiful photos when they want us to and don’t see any when they feel they are sharing too much or getting too addicted to the addictive substance of Social Media. Sometimes, these mums apologize for posting too much of their little bambinos but we really don’t mind (well, I don’t) You will often hear these ones say ‘I need to stay off social media for a while’. They log back on when they start to feel FOMO again.
Again, we may or may not be aware that they are pregnant but it doesn’t really matter because we will surely see the pictures of their beautiful baby and we look forward to watching the children grow right under our very eyes and so forth.
Active parents, Active children
You never really know who owns the page as we get equal activities of parents and babies. We look forward to these ones! In fact, their following increases as a result of their beautiful babies and these are the ones that use social media to boost their personal brand and for money making gains (i.e. the influencers). They partner with different brands and we rely on them for recommendations of good products. They capture every moment of their children’s lives for us from dealing with colic to sleeping tips, weaning and what have you. I have personally found useful tips on children books, education and feeding for my own children from different parent bloggers on Instagram.
Baby Instagram page
Yes, you are reading right. The latest trend and the last group are the parents who actually create a dedicated page for their babies. Serena Williams has a page for Olympia and Gabrielle Union has a page for Kaavia James. I used the examples of these two women because they are the household names everyone would know and recognize. There are several other regular people who have created pages for their children. It does take a level of dedication to manage your own social media page as well as a baby’s own. I must say at this point that whoever manages Kaavia James’s Instagram page is just hilarious; the captions of her expressions are second to none!
When I was going through Kaavia’s page, I kept wondering…how long is this baby page going to be on for? Is there an expectation that she will grow up to manage it herself? What if she doesn’t even want the page anymore? I certainly don’t have all the answers to my ponders but one thing is sure, Kaavia’s parents know best.
Just before I go, in case you are wondering which of these groups I belong to, I think I am one of those average posters, who have over three thousand photos on their phone that will never make it to the ‘gram.
