Going Viral

On April 6th, I got a message from a friend informing me that she saw our Gender Reveal photo on some facebook page called Creative Parents. It was shared 100 plus times and had a crazy amount of likes and comments. I knew it must have been taken from my photographers page because the version I had posted on my page credit the letter b on the photo itself. It didn't link back to Jade, which sort of creeped me out. The person downloaded the photo, then re-uploaded it without permission. My page is very secure, but knowing that anyone could essentially steal photos of my family off another person's page without anyone's knowledge and use them as they please really creeped me out. Our original plan was to have Hudson pop the gum, but he was too scared to do it. Now I am glad! This first spotting was only the beginning too! For the next few weeks, we got message after message from friends, friends of friends and family informing us of other spottings. Our photo was spreading like wildfire on parenting facebook pages. I of course found myself reading all the comments every time someone sent me a link. Most of the comments were about how cute and creative the photos were, but there were a few negative comments as well. A lot of people were upset that I didn't look pregnant, some said we were a fake couple (mainly because my facebook page is so private they couldn't see anything), quite a few people criticized Nic for participating calling him whipped and saying things like, I bet he carries her purse (just so everyone knows my husband does occasionally carry my purse for me and I see that as being a gentleman, not a sign of being whipped), some people were confused about the reveal, not understanding we are having a boy, a few people commented about seeing up my skirt and one person said Nic looked like a virgin and there is no way he was having a baby. Again, all in all though, the response was overwhelmingly positive, but again, the fact that so many random people had an opinion about a photo we had taken for our own personal enjoyment, somewhat bothered me. 

This was definitely a wake up call for me. I have done everything I can to make my page private and secure, but I have no control over photos other people post of me. It is so easy now for people to download and share pictures and once someone else posts or shares a photo my family is in, I have no control over it (or even any knowledge of it). I can't control other people's security settings or regulate what they post/share.Photos of my precious children could end up all over the internet or in the wrong hands, which is really frightening. It's a bummer because facebook is such a positive thing in so many ways and in this day and age I just don't think it is realistic to avoid social media. It provides a great way to keep in touch with family and friends and it is by far the easiest way to keep our loved ones in the loop with our lives. We are definitely in uncharted waters with all the new technology and it is tough as a parent to know how to best protect our innocent children without sacrificing all the wonderful perks of modern technology. 

The photo craze seemed to die down and we somewhat forgot about it. When we got back from the lake after Memorial Weekend, I turned on my phone and it started going crazy! I had a massive amount of facebook notifications as well as 30 new friend requests. I immediately knew something was up. Apparently our photo had gone international because tons of our Australian friends and family were informing us that they had seen our photo pop in their news feed or on facebook pages. We were tagged by a few friends in some of the comments and because of that, apparently tons of random strangers wanted to be my friend. I denied all the friend requests and instantly 15 more popped up!! It was so crazy. I have had random people come up to me at Gymboree saying they saw the photo on facebook or that a friend showed it to them and they recognized me. People have also been spotting it all over Pinterest. It is so bizarre! I guess Nic and I somewhat know what it feels like to be a celebrity. ;) Now, if only we could figure out a way to make money off the picture. haha.