Trending in social media right now is one thing that I find a waste of time. Since the beginning of time, people have been having children. It used to be that you wouldn't know what your child's sex would be until it was born and the doctor slapped its bottom and said, "It's a boy" or, "It's a girl".
In the 1950's, fetal ultrasounds came about, but they were really expensive. They helped doctors to check out the health of the fetus, and also to see what sex it would be. The technology has only improved over the past 60 years, and it offers even 3D ultrasounds that show everything you could want to see and more. The cost of ultrasounds in general has gone down, and it is something nearly every expecting mother has done.
Even though we have this information so regularly available, some people still prefer not to know the sex of the baby until it is born. They plan gender neutral colors for their nursery, gender neutral baby clothes, and they manage to do just fine when it comes to planning.
However there are also people at the opposite end who cannot wait to know their baby's sex. These people go in for their twenty week ultrasound and sit anxiously waiting for the technician to identify the baby's sex. What has emerged of late is that instead of going to the appointment and finding out at the hospital, parents have had their technician tell a close friend who is then in charge of a gender reveal party.
Gender reveal parties are basically an excuse for more attention. I'm not saying that the viral videos you see with food having pink or blue in the middle, or explosions with blue or pink smoke aren't fun and that those people wasted their time. I'm saying that you can do your cute pregnancy announcement and baby shower without making your loved ones plan a huge ordeal, come to yet another party, and bring even more gifts.
The thing is, no one cares that much about the sex of your baby. You care more than anyone else. Seeing an announcement on Facebook that says, "We're having a boy," gets the same exact point across as having a party. If people were able to get by without celebrating something as simple as the sex of their baby until this point, then we will be fine going forward without them.