
The Change My Son Brought, Seen Through Personal Data - susanhi
http://flowingdata.com/2014/04/23/the-difference-a-data-point-makes/
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junto
A fascinating insight. I imagine my data would show similar trends as my
children were born. Magical times indeed.

One of the things I've struggled with (and my brother too) is that it is
incredibly hard to resist the urge to share personal information on the
internet concerning your children, whether that be their names, experiences,
videos or photos.

My brother and I came to the conclusion that we should not leak information
that could diminish our children's privacy, as they have no power to say
anything for or against it.

Rather we would refrain completely from divulging any personal data about
them, full stop. It is hard though to resist the temptation. You want to shout
from the rooftops about the day your child started to walk, or the first time
they said 'Papa', or share a video of their first steps.

However, our conclusion was that if we put ourselves in their shoes, we would
be disappointed that we did not have the opportunity to have our say on the
matter. We have their trust, even though they don't realise it yet.

So, with the inclusion of social networks like Facebook, we have not shared
any information about our children. I don't know if it is the right decision,
but I can only hope that not doing something is better than doing something
and not being able to take it back.

We live in a world that is vastly different from the one our parents grew up
in. Privacy today is like gold dust. I hope the next generation can turn the
tables on the all seeing eyes, but I fear we have done too little too late.

~~~
mikepilla
We have come to a similar conclusion, with our first. This is really hard
since, as has been echoed, these really are magical times. I'm wondering, in
what ways have you shared with family the most?

~~~
lemming
We also decided the same, although to be fair we were going down that path
anyway (neither my wife nor myself use Facebook or LinkedIn, Twitter is
strictly professional). I'm setting up a private server with a photoblog which
will be password protected right now, but it's sufficiently annoying to do
that our daughter is now 6 months old and I still haven't finished it. We talk
to our folks a lot via Skype and we do send some via Google Drive, but never
shared publicly.

I've also started mailing prints of photos we really like, which is awesome, I
totally recommend it.

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IvyMike
I read this right after yesterday's article about Chris Knight, "The Last True
Hermit". In particular, this part makes an interesting contrast with the
quantified self movement.

> "But you must have thought about things," I said. "About your life, about
> the human condition."

> Chris became surprisingly introspective. "I did examine myself," he said.
> "Solitude did increase my perception. But here's the tricky thing—when I
> applied my increased perception to myself, I lost my identity. With no
> audience, no one to perform for, I was just there. There was no need to
> define myself; I became irrelevant. The moon was the minute hand, the
> seasons the hour hand. I didn't even have a name. I never felt lonely. To
> put it romantically: I was completely free."

------
floil
As the father of a six day old I can't but wonder: Is this guy totally checked
out in the care of his son? How can you have a newborn baby and not be waking
up at all hours of the night?

~~~
bargl
I'm a father of a 5 month old. My wife and I had an agreement in the first
three months. She took the night shift. (I know she's awesome.) And I'd get up
with him in the morning and keep him out of the room long enough for her to
get some solid sleep. This was particularly important because we were breast
feeding and had to build up a supply for daycare.

Also, I assume this guy doesn't get on email when his son wakes him up in the
middle of the night. It's not what I want to do at 4 am, I don't know about
you.

So there are many ways this can happen, his wife stays at home. He doesn't log
when he wakes up. Whatever arrangement he has with his wife it works for him
and it's not our place to judge.

~~~
junto
We did this for our second child. It makes a lot of sense to divide the work
into shifts. I wish we had done the same for the first one!

