Matt Overby, Executive Director of Summit Leadership Foundation
Recently I’ve noticed a trend among my 30-something friends with young children. When it comes to social media, you can’t find them (or their babies.) One of those friends, Matt Overby, the 37 year old Executive Director of the Summit Leadership Foundation, decided, along with his wife, to “cut the social media cord” when their infant son was born last year. I was interested in why a very tech savvy, marketing-oriented leader would choose to do this. So I sat down to interview Matt and ask him about it. Matt has extensive training in the hospitality industry both at Starbucks and at Chick-fil-A, and he is a student of Leadership Guru John Maxwell. Our seven minute conversation is well worth the listen to see the insights into a young father’s mind as to why he did not want his baby on Facebook, twitter, instagram or any other public platform.
Although I had seen this trend with Matt and others, in researching this pos,t I found only one article about it called “No Baby on Board: Many Parents Keeping Info About Their Babies Off Social Media.” Ironically, after I left the interview with Matt I bumped into another young father and shared our discussion with him. This very tech-savvy dad told me he also quit social media when his first child was born. “Not with facial recognition,” was his comment as he shook his head “no” when asked if he posted his kids’ photos on social media platforms.
What’s been your experience with other parents of newborns? Are they staying on social media or quitting? I would love to hear from you.
8 Comments
This is fascinating to me. I would not want to lead a fear-based life and I wonder sometimes about people trying to constantly shield themselves and their kids from anything that might possibly be dangerous. I don’t think that is realistic as a way to live. I’m also not sure that staying off social media actually protects identity although it might slow things down a little bit. On the other hand, I sure understand the time squeeze and the desire to build a life that is not digitally based. It’s interesting to me how people make those choices and what they believe the benefits are or aren’t. Conscious decisions are, to me, always better than going along with the crowd, no matter the topic.
Sue, thank you for your very insightful comments. I completely agree that conscious, thoughtful decisions are the best decisions for both parents and business people.
This is an interesting topic. I haven’t personally had any friends ditch social media after having children. I enjoy seeing pictures of beautiful babies and watching them grow. Whether they are family or friends, it’s so cool to see their families grow. In fact, I was mentioning to my kids a few weeks ago that I wish facebook was around when they were little so I could have posted pictures and videos that would be available for family and friends to see. I respect parents views here but I believe the benefits of being on social media far outweigh the possible risks.
Thanks Dr. Tandy. I appreciate your opinion and your weigh in on the subject.
I’ve also seen varying levels of how much people post of their kids but had no idea this was a trend – interesting!
Trudy, thanks for your comment. I am definitely aware of this happening.
I am not a parent, so I respect any parent’s decision about putting pics of their kids up. I will say to the point he made about now he sends pics in texts which is more personal, that the flip side is… because of Facebook, I feel close and personal to about 400 friends who I’ve known since grades school, college, camp, my sorority, jobs I’ve left, classes I’ve taken, etc. because of their photos. I’ve watched their kids grow up and although I don’t live near them anymore or speak with them on the phone, I can celebrate their milestones via Facebook. So, as someone who enjoys being up to date on my friend’s and their lives, FB actually saves me a lot of time because if I had to call all 400 of them every quarter or every year, that would be a LOT of time.
Haha Jessica you are too funny!