Hashtags, Instagrams & Apps for bebe
Today's post is about a very real parenting dilemma that we will soon be facing. Hashtags, Instagrams and social media account presence for our soon to be born. I have kept my bump off of social media. Not posting weekly or monthly 'bumpies' and not posting nursery favorites to a Pinterest board. But surely once this little person gets here I will be so proud of the sucker that I will want to share my news. But I am struggling with where I do it and how I do it.
A few articles recently have surfaced that explore the looming social media decision and debate that we will likely be having soon in our house. To hashtag or not to hashtag, to create a social media account- decidedly Instagram- for our little child to be. I see both sides to each story and understand them both. I like the hashtag idea as this allows friends and family to participate. But also feel partial to the individual account dedicated and ‘through the eyes’ or ‘behind the scenes’ of the kids life. But with this being such a recent trend/phenomenon I am wrestling with how this account evolves over time. Will Instagram still be relevant, will my kid have this account in 20 years and happily see that their timeline goes as deep as their first day on earth? Review the outfit posts and play dates that it can no longer remember?
My man and I got married in August of 2013. We jumped on the wedding hashtag wagon and continue to use the hashtag to document our lives and its fun that friends and family continue to use the hashtag and reference us with it. I would kind of like the same thing for the kid. We can easily cull and review the photos that friends and family have snapped of our kid. But then again, do we outgrow hashtags? Once Instagram dies (its gonna die right?) from its social media graces will we lose all of those photos and the memories and history along with them?
One solution I have found thus far is the app Lifecake. Its a free app download as well as web based service that lets you post photos to a closed social network with commenting, liking and the ability for people in your network to upload their own photos of the kid. It is basically an Instagram dedicated to families. I like this approach as it is opt in just like creating the kids account on Instagram and making it private and only those who really care will download the app.
I actually already started using Lifecake as it is letting me save and log my pregnancy photos to my one follower- baby daddy. It has some great functionality like automatically recognizing the date that a photo or video was created and putting all of the content into a chronological timeline, which has been fun to review thus far and see my maternity style and bump evolve.
Once the kid arrives I will open up the account and invite my tech saavy Nana in Chicago, my best friend in Brooklyn and cousin in DC to opt in to regular baby updates.
What are your thoughts on baby Instas, hashtags and apps? To hashtag or not to hashtag? Would love to hear!