'Expected Child' Option Adds Baby to the Facebook Family
The latest Facebook feature allows users to let their hundreds of friends know when they are having a baby by adding an "expected child."
Under the "Friends and Family" section, users of the social network now have the option to announce their due date, the sex of the baby and his or her name.
Many are already criticizing the new feature, saying that it will make the exciting task of telling family and friends about a pregnancy impersonal.
“How does Aunt Judy feel when she receives word through your news feed that’s read by 544 people?” wrote Amy Graff, a blogger for the San Francisco Chronicle's The Mommy Files.
Graff pointed out that some could have an issue if they announce their pregnancy on Facebook before telling their employer.
Also proposed was, what about the anguish of having to delete an unborn child from a Facebook profile after a miscarriage?
Elizabeth Armstrong Moore of CNET notes that the option is lacking the ability to distinguish between singleton pregnancies and multiples.
“Being a twin, I am compelled to point out that some will be entering multiple babies/name,” she wrote.
Nevertheless, the new feature joins the social community, along with the relationship statuses “in a civil union” and “in a domestic partnership.”
According to CNET, the introduction of the feature was followed by the discovery of a technical glitch where members jokingly added their Facebook friends’ names as expected children. The glitch has since been fixed.
