Cute or creepy? This toy allows babies post selfies on Facebook

"Little Bob says hi!"
"Bob sneezes! So cute!"
"Bob's first ice--cream!"
Annoyed by proud parents constantly spamming
your
Facebook with pictures of their wrinkly
newborns?
So was Dutch designer Laura Cornet. Noticing
that
pictures of parties and football games in her
Facebook
feed were increasingly being replaced by
pictures of
babies, she had the thought: "It's weird to be
involved
in the life of someone who doesn't even know I
have
already seen everything in their life."
But her friends who were parents told her they
post
those photos because they were proud of their
cute
babies, and that sharing them online with friends
was
harmless.
Cornet questioned that argument. She said her
research suggested half of newborn babies
were
"visible" online within the first day after birth.
"But the
babies didn't agree to having their photos put up
online," she said.
That thought led to the creation of "New Born
Fame," a
toy that allows babies to take selfies and post
them to
social media.
Read: Why the Internet is broken
She said her aim was to start a debate on who
has the
right to post pictures of infants online.
The mobile, with soft toys shaped as a Facebook
logo
and Twitter bird, hangs above the crib. When
the baby
reaches out to it, the device takes a quick
snapshot or a
video and automatically posts it on social media.
New Born Fame was Cornet's graduation project
at the
department of Man&Communication at Eindhoven
Design Academy -- and immediately sparked a
flood of
reactions.
Some were angry, saying she was crazy to
expose
babies to social media. That pleased her. "It was
proving my statement, I was really happy," she
said.
Facebook moms
A study by Microsoft Research found that 62%
of
mothers of kids under the age of three use
Facebook.
More than 96% of these "Facebook moms" said
they
posted photos of their child to social media.
The research shows that many of these moms
belong
to the first generation of Facebook users, who
were in
college when the network launched. As they grew
older
and started families, Facebook changed with
them --
for example by adding an "Expecting a Baby" life
event
to a profile.
But with the increasing number of baby photos
grew
the number of users annoyed by the trend,
which led
to the creation of apps such as <url>unbaby.me</url> , which
allowed users to remove unwanted baby posts
from
their feeds.
Send a selfie
Cornet said she originally thought the idea of
babies
taking selfies was "a bit creepy."
"Some people were scared of it, thinking it's
kind of a
Big Brother watching their baby," she said.
But many others liked the concept, and wanted to
buy
the toy -- even though Cornet's project was
meant as a
statement, an artwork, rather than a commercial
product.
She is now redesigning the prototype so that it
would
send images and videos directly to parents'
mobile
phones, rather than to social media -- a concept
she is
more comfortable with.
But Cornet herself remains unsure whether she
would
want her baby, if she chooses to have one in the
future, to use the device.
"I don't know. When you have kids yourself,
things
change. Suddenly babies become cute -- so I
can't
guarantee that I wouldn't do it myself."
Read: Why the Internet is broken Read more:
To post
or not to post? Read more: At some schools, 'Big
Brother' is watching.
Leave a reply below.

Posted by Ogwuche Abel on Thursday, November 13, 2014 - Rating: 4.5

Title : Cute or creepy? This toy allows babies post selfies on Facebook
Description : "Little Bob says hi!" "Bob sneezes! So cute!" "Bob's first ice--cream!" Annoyed by proud parents consta...

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