I’m going to beat you to this one too!
I love kids of all ages and would like babies too if it weren’t for all those women around talking about bizarre stuff associated with it. It does get to be pretty annoying. Even level-headed professional females with degrees can get knee deep in mommy woo before they know what is happening. It starts off asking for innocent tips for common things and then degenerates into 3 am fights online with strangers about optimal nursing strategies. I am sure someone has been killed over it somewhere.
I learned it is best, even when you are the father, to just lay low for the first couple of years and then stake your claim where it matters. Babies are durable creatures and they don’t really care how they get burped or what music is played to them. As long as they get the basics, they are good to go. After the dust settles when they are about 2 years old, you can just walk in and have some good quality time teaching them useful and fun things because the supermoms have exhausted themselves by that point.
Everyone has a voice on the internet. Most people think they’re unique sunflowers. And there’s no one right or wrong way to parent, so it’s an issue that has taken up quite a lot of internet real estate. If we can have websites about celebrity gossip or random pictures of animals doing dumb things, we can have websites about babies. I don’t see any reason to hate on one hobby more than the other.
My best friend in New Zealand has a blog about her family and I love it, it’s a great way to keep up with the day to day stuff now that we don’t have day to day contact anymore. I’ve watched her kids grow up vicariously for the past couple of years and when we went home to NZ for a trip earlier this year, it was great to meet them in person and see how much of their personalities I’d already gleaned from what she’d written and photos/videos she’d posted.
She doesn’t do it for an ego boost, she does it because she’s got friends like me that don’t live in the same city anymore, and she herself moved from Christchurch to Auckland and most of her family are still in Christchurch, with one sister in London.
Just because you don’t like those blogs, don’t judge the people writing them so harshly, they may have similar circumstances as my friend.
Okay, THAT’S truly spoken like a person who’s never had a baby.
What you seem to not be getting is that these posts and blogs and stuff aren’t meant for you. They are for siblings, parents, cousins, and other extended family that all call to check on how things are going with the baby. The reason they are so common is because no one wants to have the phone ring 20 times a day waking up the baby and disturbing them during their precious hour of sleep they get while their child is an infant and most people who have a child have lots and lots of family that want updates. Besides, if you want to know what your friends are up to (which is your stated reason for turning on facebook) you will find that babies, husbands, weddings, etc. is exactly what your friends are up to so that is what they post about.
People who aren’t up to that kind of thing tend to post about their day at work, their date last night, how much they love Jesus, and other inane blather no more important than baby updates. In fact it seems like 78% of the internet is an inane blather portal where people spew information most of the world doesn’t give a shit about. The rest of the internet appears to be made up of porn.
Ha, totally! 
I resent the fact that society says women are incomplete if they don’t have babies. I chose NOT to have a baby, and I’m ok with that. I thought this 21st century was all about women’s empowerment and the ability for all people to make their own choices.
I think you guys are missing my point. I GET that people blog (I just find it inane). My point is that some people get this inflated sense of self because of their blog, and assume they’re SUPER relevant and some sort of life guru. Gwyneth Paltrow to name a celebrity?? I have friends who have that superior sense of self that they didn’t have before their blog. THAT’S my point.
I don’t see where anyone here implied “you’re incomplete because you don’t have a baby.” They seem to be saying “You’re not aware of how much time a baby really takes, because you don’t have a baby.” There’s no judgment there on your lifestyle there; just a statement of fact.
Hell, having to make daily shoot-the-shit phone calls to all my family members would take a crap ton of time out of my schedule, and I don’t have a baby (and don’t want one.) I just have a lot of family. I find it entirely believable that someone with a new kid and lots of family who do in fact want to hear every little detail wouldn’t have enough time to talk, and making a blog post instead would be satisfying for all involved.
ETA: well, if people seem to be missing your point, it could be because it’s migrated from “my friends have inflated egos since they gave birth” to “you people don’t have time to call make a phone call?”
You totally missed the point.
You assert that parents should have enough time to talk to multiple family members/friends during the day when they have a baby as part of your arguement against blogs/facebook updates on babies. Well, it would be assumed that you have never had a baby, because there certainly isn’t any time to chit chat on the phone with a little one. Your assumption is based on what you think life is like with a baby, not what you know.
ETA: What Jenaroph said.
Disclosure: I am not a mommy. I am a daddy.
And yes, absolutely. Having a kid, whose feeding, education, and protection are a much higher priority than shooting the shit with friends, really does take that much time. Every second of it, and more. I’m in a loving, stable, equable relationship with my wife. We split duties pretty much right down the middle, and we’re still absolutely FLOORED with exhaustion at the end of every day from keeping up with a 17-month-old fireball.
You think they simply must have time to take a few minutes to speak? I say that assumption is laughable.