Facebook more than any other social network has become a grown up’s virtual show-and-tell with folks showcasing everything from birthdays to beatdowns and breakups, and nuptials to…well, nipples. We seem to show everything, all the time, with reckless abandon, letting anyone and everyone into our lives.

I don’t judge. If showing the world every detail of your private life is what makes you happy, by all means, share away. I do take issue with a few things however and it seems that the preggo social networkers happen to be the repeat offenders in this case. And now that everyone is getting their hands on an Instagram account to soon put the TM in TMI (Too Much Information), here’s a look at the top five things that new moms and/or moms-to-be need to QUIT doing and sharing with the world.

Stop posting half-naked pregnant pictures: Why does the world need to see you in a bra and panties with your protruding, freshly cocoa-buttered belly? Was the fully-clothed photo of you with your hands lovingly placed over your baby bump not enough? No? You had to go all Amber Rose? Not everything is for everybody. I think we all see enough of these type of images at black art festivals and don’t need you to enter the game. Keep these for your own personal photo album.
Stop showing us your “Birthin’ room” pics: Listen, the sacred and sometimes scary moment of delivering a child into this world is not meant for everyone on the Internet or in your friend cricle to see. No one wants to see your blue-green baby fresh out the pum pum all cloaked in a glistening robe of yuck. Let the little bundle of joy marinate in a bath and fresh air for a few days before you introduce us! I think we can all better appreciate the adorable kid you brought into the world when you don’t post a photo of them straight out the womb.
Don’t talk smack about your baby’s father(s): Um, he was good enough for you to lay up under, so think twice before posting that rant about how he ain’t s—. It only makes you look immature and if you do it more than once, you’ll start to look completely ratchet. Settle your private affairs, you know, privately.
Don’t talk smack about your kids! This sounds crazy, but trust, I see it almost daily. In my mind I always want to shake these individuals and remind them that, hey, YOU’RE the one raising little Ray Ray! If he’s “bad” then guess whose fault that is? Don’t worry, I’ll wait… Congratulations, you’ve just outed yourself as a subpar parent. Get your whole entire life, honey.
PLEASE STOP posting naked baby photos. Now THIS, I take SO seriously. No jokes here at all. As we’ve all come to know but many of us choose to ignore, what you put into cyberspace you can not get back, nor can you control who views it. Your babies are adorable. I get that. But they are adorable FULLY clothed. Shield your children from the perverts lurking on the Internet. Just because you’ve set your Facebook profile to “private” does not mean that what you post won’t easily be taken and seen. Cover your children and please be mindful of the kinds of photos you post of them. Internet predators can only use what we provide. Let’s be more mindful.

La Truly is a late-blooming Aries whose writing is powered by a lifetime of anecdotal proof that awkward can transform to awesome and fear can cast its crown before courage. La seeks to encourage thought, discussion and change. Her blog: www.hersoulinc.com and Twitter: @AshleyLaTruly. 

From YourTango.com

By Lyz Lenz

As a newlywed, I loved to vacuum. There wasn’t much to clean. We had one hand-me-down blue velour couch and matching lazy boys, with stains of mysterious origin. Our small TV was sitting on top of the crates that I used in college to hold my text books, and a small wooden table that his brother used for taxidermy. And despite how often I cleaned it, I could still smell duck blood.

But, this was our crummy furniture in our crummy apartment, and I liked to fuss over it—dusting and vacuuming at least twice a week. Given our Spartan living arrangements, vacuuming was a chore with few surprises. And yet, once a week, when I vacuumed near the couch, I heard the vacuum rattle like I was sucking up tacks. One day, I bent down and saw the jagged half moons of toenail clippings. Gross.

Have you ever discovered something about your partner, you really didn’t want to know? See how this author confronted her husband and what she learned about privacy in a marriage at YourTango.com.

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Source: worldaccordingtomonte.com

Twitter is the devil. 140 characters certainly makes one think so. The age of social media has exposed celebrities as being undeserving of the pedestals they’ve built their images upon. You can learn a lot about a person in just one tweet and these days, even that’s just too much information.

There used to be a time when stars held a certain aura about them. It was a mystique that added to their presence and was fascinating because fans always wanted to know more. That time has come and gone. In its place is an era where Ke$ha tweets a picture of herself peeing in the streets. Chris Brown posted a picture of himself taking a dump. Rihanna recently uploaded a pics of herself making it rain at a strip club. Don’t even get me started on all the ugly tirades these people go on their Twitter beefs about the most obscure things. Very little has been left to the imagination.

Celebrities have become stunt queens chronicling every last minute of their lives. Their every indulgence has become public consumption. Even their good intentions are an exercise in vanity. The Digital Death Campaign a few years ago had celebrities lying in coffins and declaring themselves dead on social media until enough money was raised for “Keep A Child Alive.”  The “dead” quickly rose from their virtual graves and were updating their statuses before the monetary goal was reached. The efforts were undercut by the sheer narcissism. The world wide web still remembers just as it holds onto the memory of Rihanna and Ciara battling it out on Twitter over who could book a stage. And who could forget Chris Brown, Frank Ocean and Tyler the Creator going at it, calling each other b**** a** n****s and apes? There was also the time when even Jennifer Hudson threatened to go Chi-town crazy on a fan. From a purely entertainment standpoint, one could sit in front of their computer screens with a bag of popcorn and just refresh for the next few hours. However, when your antics are what starts to get you page views instead of an actual craft, there’s an issue.

It’s easy to insist that celebrities are upending conventional wisdom by putting their business on front street. They assume control by not pushing a phony perfect image. They’re being real but Dave Chappelle wasn’t lying when he said keeping it real can go wrong. It’s not always the best look; inviting the world into your most personal business and drama just gets the side eye more than a standing ovation. When that does happen, a lot of these stars tend to push back by telling the media to mind its own…even though they made their exploits public.

Beyoncé is called boring because she doesn’t tweet her every bowel movement. She’s only begun utilizing Twitter for professional purposes and is employing Tumblr to share family snapshots. Every star doesn’t need to follow her model and play it safe PG-13 style. At the very least, there should be a happy medium. It seems the more we know, the more some look at celebrities as people they actually know. But for others, the more we know, the less we can take their antics.

In the back of everyone’s minds, we like to think that these stars are just like us. We just don’t always want to see how much.

Stephanie Guerilus is a journalist and author. Follow her @qsteph

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What brand names fill your closest? Old Navy, Baby Phat and Forever 21? Or Marc Jacobs, Prada and Gucci? If it’s brand names such as the latter, when you get tired of your old clothes, there’s a new site that allows you to cash them in for equally chic styles. According to Fast Company, Refashioner is the online sharing site for those with an expensive, high class taste in fashion.

QVC notes that the average woman has 22 items of clothing sitting in her closet unworn, with an estimated value of over $2 billion. While the less-expensive brands will most likely end up in clothing donations across the US or yard sales, Refashioner allows the chic clothes to gain new life and attention with a new owner, while the former owner proudly struts her new purchases. This is the site that would allow the fashion-conscious and somewhat spending-conscious woman to wear something new at any given time.

The peer-to-peer exchange site exclusively for luxury clothing, allows users to post photos of their unwanted clothing in an online customizable closet. Refashioner then prices the clothes. Once a piece of clothing sells, the site keeps $8 of the total purchase and the user receives money than can only be spent on the site. Users can also link their closets to other users with similar taste or tell the story behind an item of clothing.

Before you get too excited about Refashioner, the site comes with a haughty warning: “We have no patience nor mercy for knock-offs.”

Users with impeccable taste and an extraordinary clothing selection join on an invitation only basis. The creators hope the limitations will inspire an appealing sense of intimacy. With fewer customers, users will be given more attention.

The site is capitalizing on a wave of luxury online sharing sites, such as HiGear, an online luxury car sharing site and Exclusive Exchanges, which allows users to trade homes.