In so many cases, social media has taken the place of traditional paper announcements. About to have a baby? Never mind deciding between blue, pink, or gender-neutral green announcements, you have harder choices ahead. Like which Instagram filter to use.

Instagram: You're hip and own more than one upcycled find from a farmer's market. You worry that the Apollo filter isn't capturing your baby excitement. You deliberate over a fair-trade, decaf soy latte.

Facebook: You're mainstream and plan to register at Target for baby gear. You spend a lot of time picking the right FB sticker to go with your baby announcement status. Look! 98 likes!

Twitter: You're a sardonic pragmatist. “We're pregnant! #nauseous” took you 32 seconds to come up with. You debate about attaching a selfie to your Tweet, but can't perfect a wry grin that says “I'm excited, but also, like, chill about it.”

Pinterest: You may not announce your pregnancy on Pinterest, but you won’t have to because the 32 pregnancy boards you create within a day of discovering you’re pregnant will announce it for you: Gender-Neutral Nursery Decor, Baby Girl Nursery Décor, Baby Boy Nursery Décor, Cribs, Crib Bedding, Baby Clothes, Pregnancy Workouts, Freezer Meals for Busy Moms, Homemade Baby Food, Pregnancy Snacks, Pregnancy Midnight Snacks, How Can I Get Some More Food Around Here?  

YouTube: Your baby announcement is actually a 5-minute video of your first child having a tantrum that she’ll have to share her crib with a new baby. Also, it’s a parody of a Frozen song.

Vine: You have an unrealistically optimistic sense of how long labor with last. You text without capital letter or punctuation. Luckily, your attention-span will match your toddler’s someday.

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About the Author

Nicole Leigh Shaw

Nicole Leigh Shaw consistently wonders, "Why did I come into this room?" Once upon a time she was a mostly serious news journalist, an accidental magazine columnist, and a mediocre editor. Now she funnels an enthusiasm for meeting minimum requirements into her blog, , and finding pairs of socks for her kids that kind of match. With four kids under age eight (two are twins), she can say with confidence that she's finally gotten the hang of this birth control thing: Facebook. Because one cannot procreate and update statuses at the same time.

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