Unbaby.me replaces Facebook pictures of babies with 'awesome stuff'

This extension may be old news to some, but I just found out about it. Really? Some of you hate babies so much that you want to block them from your news feed? That's the principle behind Unbaby.me, a chrome extension that will swap out baby pictures in your Facebook feed for something that's more pleasing to the eye. As someone who just became a parent not too long ago, I can see both sides.

As a new mom I posted lots (and I do mean lots) of baby pictures to Facebook after our son was born. Family and friends wanted to see him, and we were proud parents! Even now, I post a picture of him at least once a week. I don't do it to annoy my friends and family. To be honest, I don't really do it for their benefit at all. I post them for me.

It's much easier to see how he has grown and changed by looking in my Facebook album rather than hundreds of photos in the "My Pictures" folder on my computer. I don't make them completely private because we do have some friends and family who've said they love the pictures because they get to see him grow up.

As someone who didn't have a kid until she was 29, I know it can be annoying when someone talks about their kid all the time. You don't want to know how many dirty diapers Daisy had, what she ate for breakfast, or how many As and Bs Johnny got on his report card. You don't necessarily want to see pictures of their spaghetti-covered faces, pictures of them in the bathtub or photos of babies with toothless grins. Get a life already, am I right?

Yet, that annoyance goes both ways. I can count the number of times on no hands that I've wanted to see another duck face, a shirtless manchild or yet another picture of your car or truck. I don't really care about pictures of you with whats-her-name at the bar, your latest haul from your shopping trip or the hundreds of selfies to show off the latest outfit you're wearing. Yet, if you're my friend, I can endure looking at them and even find something nice to say about many.

But for those of you who want to try out Unbaby.me, here's how it works. Go to the Unbaby.me site in your Chrome browser, and click the bit button at the bottom to install the extension. After you install it, a page will open up with options. You'll be given a box where many blacklisted words are already put in for you. You can add other words, too, like your friend's name if she just had a baby.

Some of the blacklisted words (and I'll admit, some made me laugh) are 'so adorable,' 'new addition to the family,' 'looks like dad,' 'grow up so fast,' 'tantrum' and 'won't stop crying.' Below that box, you'll see an area where you can choose replacement content. The tag (at least for me) is cats by default. You can change it to whatever you want, and the extension will pull photos from Instagram that contain that tag to replace the offensive baby pictures. Click save, and go to Facebook to take a look at your handiwork.

I tried it myself and looked at my own news feed and the news feeds of some of my friends who have babies. It didn't work very well. Perhaps it could be improved by adding the baby's name to the blacklisted words. Or maybe we're too clever and we've thwarted your efforts to ignore our baby-infested newsfeeds. Resistance is futile.

I'm not offended if any of my friends want to unbaby my posts on their news feed. It's kind of funny, when you think about it. I'm just surprised that some people hate seeing baby pictures that much. I'd really love to hear your comments on this. Just how annoying do you find baby pictures? Does another type of picture have you wanting to pluck your eyes out? If you've used Unbaby.me, what kinds of pictures do you have substituting for those kooky kids?

Silver no babies photo courtesy C. G. P. Grey, via Flickr.

Yellow no babies photo courtesy hfb, via Flickr.