Social Media has become a big part of our lives. Whether we want to admit it or not. Look at me right now, I am writing this blog and you are reading it. A blog is apart of social media. In this post I want to talk about the reason I have chosen not to post pictures or information about my child on social media.
I have been a pretty big social media person. You name it I have probably been on it. This list includes: MySpace, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, X (Twitter when I started), Vine, etc. As I have gotten older I have decided that I will stick with what I know and not add more rabbit holes to scroll through (so no TikTok).
Sooo back to the reason I am writing this blog. Before our first child was born I never announced or posted about my pregnancy on social media. I felt that the people who were important and knew me would already know about the pregnancy and I didn’t need likes or congratulations from acquaintances or people who weren’t in my life. It is also a very sensitive subject for some because of infertility, miscarriages, or struggles getting pregnant.
After our son was born, Jim and I made the decision to not post him all over social media. We also asked family and friends to honor that and do the same. This was not, and still is not, an easy thing to do and some people do not follow or respect our request, which is really frustrating.
Reasons:
Here are the reason(s) I have chosen not to post my child on social media:
- There are creepy people out there (online predators and stalkers) and social media gives these people more access and information
- A child cannot make a decision if they want to be on social media or not. What if they grow up and someone has stolen their identity because of me or they choose not to be on social media but there’s already all of these pictures and posts out there about them. (Social Media posts never go away even when we delete them)
- When we post about our children we give out so much information about them. Usually their first and middle name (sometimes their last too), birthdate, age, sometimes where they were born. Along with pictures of what they look like.
- AI is also becoming a big thing as they are creating dep fake images and using them inappropriately. Sometimes to impersonate you in a negative way.
I am not saying that you need to follow suit with what I am doing, just be cautious of what you post about yourself and your children. We need to keep ourselves and children safe. When we post too much information it becomes difficult to keep them safe from identity theft, predators, harassment and it is easier for us to get hacked or our identities stolen.
Social Media is not all bad. There are positives like keeping you connected with people you may not otherwise been able to. As well as negatives, people keeping track of your life or knowing too much.
