Cribsheet reader Barb recently sent an e-mail that struck a chord with me. Here’s Barb’s note:

Over the weekend I found out that my good friend had her baby. The best part, I found out via her husband’s live blog on Twitter.com. I think this is definitely a first for me, to find out about a birth via not just the internet, but a father live blogging the details from the delivery room. We knew how far her contractions were, when she was fully dilated, about every hour we had an update all the way to “BABY IS HERE”.

Not sure if this is something that could be a post for you blog, but it certainly sparked interesting discussion at our dinner table. How has technology changed the way we know people, see people’s lives, learn about life events?? From a phone call, to email, to a blog post, now to a live web update from the delivery room via his cell phone. Wow!

- Barb

I must say I’m fairly new to Twitter. (for other newbies: think micro blogging) I was recently out with group of friends for appetizers before a concert. One was twittering away on his Blackberry throughout the evening. I accused him of twitter-bating and said “Really? Really? Do people out there really want to know your random thoughts and observations and comings and goings every 12 minutes ?” Apparently so. Of course, I immediately realized how hypocritical that must sound as a blogger. Do people really care about my random thoughts, observations and comings and goings? But I said - “Hey - how about being present in the moment and sharing those random thoughts and observations with us. These friends who are right here. Live. In front of your face?”  bitter.

When I read Barb’s e-mail - I did think yes,  what a great way to keep everyone in the loop immediately on the good news.  

BUT on the flipside I would’ve been more than irritated at my husband if he was tweeting away that I was “dilated to 8″ when really - he should be by my side letting me dig my fingernails into his forearm.

Again. How about being present in the moment?

And birth is a pretty momentous moment.

I’m not totally twitter bitter - I think it has it’s time and place. Recently there were a lot of interesting “tweets” from the Olympics from those who were there. The key is you can choose to follow them or not.  

How has technology changed how you communicate and keep in touch as a parent and how do you keep information overload at bay?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 at 11:39 am and is filed under Rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.