5 unintended digital consequences of having a baby
I knew that having a baby was going to radically alter my lifestyle, but I didn't realise what a difference it was going to make to my digital habits. Here are 5 things I've noticed since Emma Rose arrived.
The return of Facebook
Back in the day, when my daughter was born I would have put a classified announcement in the local paper and left it at that. In 2009, I had to work out which of my family, friends, colleagues and peers would get the news via my blog, Twitter, Facebook, SMS, email or snail mail. Putting the pictures up on Facebook was the first time I had logged into my account for months, and I rediscovered a whole ecosystem of friends who are light digital users, rather than the media twitterati and UXers that I hang out with on Twitter and in Google Reader. The interaction I got straight away sucked me back into the using the site. I've now ended up putting a Facebook link and a 'share with Facebok' bookmarklet on my browser toolbar, and I'm more engaged with Facebook than I have been for probably over a year.
Adopting online grocery shopping
Most people of my generation wonder how our parents can have coped without the invention of disposable nappies. For me, it is the invention of online grocery shopping that has revolutionised the early weeks with a baby at home. Since we don't have a car, supermarket shopping has typically been done piecemeal in our house, or with me balancing everything precariously on my bike. Now that we need a lot of extra bulky products, and a lot more planning in advance, online shopping comes into its own. Especially the ability to put some things in an online shopping basket, walk away, and add more to them at a later date. With sleep deprivation having reduced my concentration levels by approximately 73%, this is a very handy feature indeed.
Using the baby in mailing list flame wars about copyright
I usually steer clear of the copyright-and-DRM rows that periodically break out and ruin the backstage.bbc.co.uk mailing list as a useful place for discussion.
However, now I have an interesting real world case study to join in with.
Why is that that these people who want to abolish copyright champion their own freedom, but want to take away my freedom to publish pictures of my infant daughter on the web so that family and friends can see her, and also express at the same time that I own the image and I don't want to see it reused commercially or otherwise without my permission?
If you want to get a flavour for how well that went down, I got told:
"For obvious reasons I do not wish to discuss children as a subject anymore."
and
"If you wish to talk about personal images use the example of adults, a spouse for example. Or personal information. Involving children is like using the word Nazi, it is designed to close down debate"
When I pointed out that I was simply 'using a real world example of something I have actually done in the last two weeks that used the existing copyright law framework and Internet distribution' to test the argument I was told:
"I will not respond to any posts that includes references [to] children. In fact the posters future posts will be filtered to trash."
Never had the phrase 'freetard' seemed more appropriate.
Uninstalled software
A few days before our baby was born, I was in central London, and visited the Apple store to buy an iPod dock in case we needed relaxing music whilst my wife was in labour. At the time I wasn't sure whether the music was genuinely intended to relax her, or whether it was actually a request simply intended to distract me with something to do as the birth approached. Either way, at the time I thought "whilst I'm here I might as well buy the Snow Leopard upgrade for my MacBook". Five weeks later, and that impulse purchase still lies shrink-wrapped, sitting on top of the much neglected classical CDs in my collection.
Inventing useful 'geek-with-baby' gadgets
I've been inventing new gadgets for my laptop - things that a geek with a baby needs but which don't seem to exist. Basically I am adept at rocking the baby to sleep with one arm, and using the computer with my free hand. However it is really hard to press double key combinations like CMD+S and SHIFT+F5. Inspired by the concept of the pedals on a church organ, what I really need is some kind of bluetooth device on the floor which allows me to tap shift, control and option with my feet, whilst still holding the baby...
Or you could rest the baby on the shift key... (congratulations)
Having long since departed territory served by any useful online supermarket delivery myself, I'll still offer this:
Ocado's good. They use people over the age of 14 who are able to speak in sentences almost all the way through the supply chain - I found that they were the only outfit who actually understood that it was not OK to (eg) fail to find the vegetarian sausages and instead send you liver and bacon.
Have you considered turning on the 'sticky keys' feature under the Universal Access preference pane?
This lets you press the modifier key and then follow it with the function key or letter. You can also tell your Mac to display the modifier key on-screen and/or to beep when you've hit a modifier key, so that you can be sure whether you really pressed the key you think you did. It takes a little getting used to for anyone who is used to typing at full speed, but it's tremendously useful for anyone who finds themselves having to type one-handed.
"a classified announcement in the local paper" - really?! Do you live in the same locality as your friends and family? Lucky you! I'd have to make do with twitter etc. Congrats by the way, she looks adorable.