From the hospital to Twitter and Instagram
Everyday parents join celebrities in creating social media accounts for babies
Late last year, the former rapper-Law & Order: SVU star Ice-T and the former Playboy model-lingerie entrepreneur Coco Austin became parents to baby Chanel: a blessed arrival who made her social media debut not 24 hours after her debut on planet Earth. With @BabyChanelWorld accounts on both Twitter and Instagram, the newborn already has a combined 30,000 followers and counting — not bad for an individual who counts yawning and pooping as her most photo-worthy accomplishments. But if the size of Chanel’s audience is out of the ordinary, her status as an infant holding a social-media account is anything but.
Parents posting kid photos (sometimes a lot of kid photos) to Facebook/Instagram/Twitter has been going on since the dawn of Internetsharing. What’s different here is that little ones (sometimes very little ones) aren’t just appearing on their parents’ feeds, they’re getting their own accounts.
A2014 survey by Gerber shows that nearly 40 per cent of millennial moms have gone online with their offspring (under the child’s identity) before the first birthday mark. There are websites that allow parents-tobe to browse baby names based on online availability. There is even — brace yourself — a hanging mobile that lets babies take (and post!) selfies from the comfort of their cribs. And yes, that sounds like the opening chapter of an Aldous Huxley children’s novel.
This whole trend, in fact, can easily be cast as a sign of the “Kardashia-pocalypse.” But before you go casting stones — have you ever complained about a friend who posts way too many kid photos? Or has no life outside parenthood? Then consider when it comes to having separate social media for their little ones, a lot of parents have reasons that are downright reasonable.
New Summerhill parents Chris and Farah Boddy had an email address and an Instagram account for baby Grayson before he was home from the hospital last November. Both are mid-30s professionals and enthusiastic social media users whose prebaby Insta-game was a standard mix of cottage sunsets, sporting events and wee-hour party snaps.
“We love to document our lives and we knew we’d be doing it with Grayson,” says Farah, who appreciates the efficiency of Instagram over emailing photos to various friends and family. Grayson’s account is private, which allows his parents to monitor who can view it. Also, says Chris, it allows friends to monitor how much they see of Grayson: “I have a lot of friends who have expressed frustration over the endless stream of baby photos that you often see with new parents. This way, we’re not forcing them on anyone,” he says.
Lonelle Selbo has dedicated Facebook and Instagram accounts for her 18-month-old son, Sebastian. For her, this arrangement helps in creating a distinction between her mommy self and her work identity: “I’m a magazine editor, so my own Instagram is more professional. I don’t think the people who follow me based on my work want to see multiple photos of my son walking.”
Through Sebastian’s Instagram, Selbo has developed a valuable online community where she can exchange thoughts and questions with other parents. With her own account, she expresses a more rounded identity.
“Sometimes it’s good to remind yourself that you still exist as an individual,” she says. But could someone else’s individuality be paying the price?
Amber MacArthur is a tech expert and mom to a son who has appeared very rarely on any Internet platform over the course of his seven years.
“Every person has a right to decide how they’re presented online,” says MacArthur, speaking to what she views as the central concern around parent-controlled social media accounts.
“Eventually your child will reach the age when they are ready to make their own decisions about online identity and it’s possible that the photos their parents have posted will be in conflict with that.”
MacArthur says that the most valuable gift a parent can give their kid is not a reserved Twitter handle or a decade of precious #memories, but a blank slate on which to create their own online identity. Assuming that is still a thing. Duana Taha, mom and author of the forthcoming baby name book The Name Therapist, wonders whether Instagram will be at all relevant by the time today’s newborns are old enough to consider these issues. “Our kids are probably going to look at (social media accounts) the way we looked at a commemorative coin from our birth year. Fun to look at, but not actually useful.”