TMI: Facebook Adds ‘I’m Expecting’ Option

I’ll admit it: I’m on Facebook all the time. I mostly creep, which I know is lame, but I also post the occasional photo (usually of a kid or a random street scene). I’m always happy to hear about “friends'” good news via FB but the one thing that has always driven me crazy is when pregnant women give an up-to-the-minute report of their labor and delivery. It is just so self-indulgent.

Along these lines, Facebook has added a new “I’m expecting” option to its site that allows users to share their (future) child’s name and due date. The information then gets posted in your news feed.

This isn’t exactly earth-shattering hordes of people already share news of their pregnancies on Facebook with a simple status update. But what gives me the jeebs is that Facebook will now be able to formally track people’s due dates and baby names (it’s, like, who needs a census when you’ve got Facebook?).

Also, the whole thing reminds of a story we reported on last month in which a Texas couple created a Facebook page for their unborn child (they even named the embryo and wrote status updates from the its point of view). The page was eventually removed by Facebook because it goes against their policy of having those under 13 years old as registered users. I commented on the cheesiness of it all back then and, well, now everyone is invited to be cheesy thanks to the new “I’m expecting” option.

(Photo: Jupiterimages)