Delivery room makeovers for that perfect first mother-baby picture
have apparently become a thing these days. According to a report in The New York Times, a growing number of women are booking hairstylists and makeup
artists to come to their hospital room for postpartum grooming, typically with
the first photographs of mother and child in mind. Curling iron, hair dryer,
boar bristle hairbrushes and makeup kit have reportedly become part of the
crucial ‘equipment’ needed in these hospital rooms.
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| Today it's all about posting that perfect shot on social media |
Unbelievable, right? What has happened to celebrating and
enjoying the arrival and bonding with your baby? Clearly, the priority is no
longer the baby nor the mother’s health, but getting that perfect shot out as
quickly as possible.
Thankfully, we haven’t yet upgraded to this level here at
home in Nagaland. Though baby photos are aplenty of course, I at least have not
seen any immediate post delivery photos till date. But can that day be far away
at the rate we are going?
We too have taken to this photo posting craze with gusto.
Birthdays, weddings, anniversaries – evidence of any and every occasion has to
be posted, and plenty of it.
Bought a new car or moved into your new home? Of course,
you have to take a picture and upload it. After all, there’s no point in being
privately happy about something nice happening in your life, is there? Everyone
else has to know about it.
Not to mention parties and get-togethers with friends.
Sometimes it seems like people get together not to actually have fun, but just
to click and post images of it to prove to others that they’re having the time
of their life. Pictures of every place you visit and everything you do have
become a must.
Then there are those who bombard us with photos of their
children. At times it feels like we know more about these children than we know
our own. Every smile, every move, every antic they get up to, first day in
school, last day in school, their first birthdays, second birthdays, third,
fourth, what they did, the presents they received…….and so on and so forth.
No parent can be condemned for thinking that their children
are the best, the cutest and the smartest and for wanting to show them off. It’s
only natural. I’m a mother and I know how it is. But there’s also something
called going overboard. After a time, the overexposure means it’s more like ‘oh
no, not another one’ rather than ‘oh wow’. It also makes one wonder whether we
are really enjoying our children or spending too much time thinking about how
their pictures would look like on Facebook.
Besides, there’s nothing sacred between you and your child
anymore if you’re going to post every intimate moment you share for public
viewing, is there?
Over and above this, there are the risks of putting up young
children’s pictures online. When I see people frequently posting their
children’s photos in all sorts of poses, I always wonder whether they are aware
that it’s a dangerous world out there in cyberspace. A little careful thought
before posting your child’s photo would be a good thing.
Moreover, technology changes quickly and who knows, five
years down the line you might find yourself deeply regretting what you post
about your children today.
I’ve also seen some people posting over a hundred family
vacation photos at a time. OMG, first of all, where are they getting the time
and patience to upload so many photos at a go? And, secondly, who has the time
and patience or interest to view so many photos of someone else’s vacation?
Putting up four or five good or funny ones, if you really want to, is fine, but
forty-fifty is way too much and in hundreds is just plain crazy over the line.
Instead of being in the moment and enjoying the times with
family and friends, these days everyone seems more concerned about getting that
perfect shot to show off on social media and get that precious ‘like’. There’s
this brag culture that social media has spawned which has us so busy narrating
our lives online that we’re missing out on the real thing.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that photos should not be
posted at all. I too love to see pictures of family and friends and also to
upload some of my own. But it’s nice to keep some family occasions and outings
just that – a family thing, isn’t it? It’s also nice to just do some things
sometimes without thinking of capturing it on camera for others to see.
There’s so much more to life than Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram or what have you. Instead of constantly worrying about capturing the
best of the moments, it’ll serve us better to immerse ourselves into those
moments and enjoy them fully. Or else, we may very well find that life has passed us by while
we were waiting to get that perfect shot.