New mom on social media: To post or not to post

I used to rarely post on my personal social media pages. But ever since I had a baby, that's changed.

Of course I shared the exciting news of my daughter's birth. Then I noticed other moms posting photos and updates about their babies at 1 month, 2 months, etc., usually for the entire first year. I thought that was a cute idea, so I did too.

I do love posting about my daughter for several reasons -- the first being that it's an easy way I can collect some memories of her first year. Scrapbooking and organizing my 100,000,000,000 photos of my daughter on a hard drive is on my to-do list, but let's be realistic -- it will be awhile before that happens!

Social media is also the quickest way to share sweet updates with friends and family members I don't get to see, and I have heard from my aunts and cousins how happy seeing the photos makes them.

But sometimes I question those posts.

I've long worried about the negative impacts social media has on our mental health. For the most part, people post about the good stuff -- birthdays, vacations, gatherings with friends and other fun times. We can also select which images we post, choosing only the most flattering or attractive pictures of ourselves.

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Even more on my mind are how maternity and baby photos or posts about pregnancy and childbirth affect those parents struggling with infertility or miscarriage.

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Yes, people are smart and realize someone's profile isn't a representation of their entire life. But it's easy to forget that when we scroll through it all -- which is, ironically, often at times when we are doing nothing at all.

Personally, I worry my daughter will struggle with this as she gets older in the same way I did. Before the internet, it was unlikely you'd find out if your ex-boyfriend got engaged. You probably wouldn't know if two of your closest friends went to the beach for the day and didn't invite you.

Raising an infant daughter during a raging pandemic, travel is the last thing on my mind. But when I see photos of my friends having those new experiences, I miss them. Likewise, when I see mothers posting smiling photos of their babies at the park or at playdates, I wonder -- am I doing enough with my daughter?

With all these things in mind, I try to remind myself that social media is a great way to stay in touch, but it's only a small sliver of our lives. So only post and scroll if it brings you joy.