There’s a royal baby on the way… how did you hear?

As you must know by now, Prince William and Kate have announced they are expecting their first baby. And the internet helped spread the news quicker than you could wave a royal flag at…

If you’re a fan of Twitter you’d have heard the news as soon as the BBC broke it around 3.55pm. The Duchess of Cambridge was admitted into hospital with acute morning sickness but we didn’t know much else.

Tweets swiftly followed from all the major news outlets and soon Twitter was awash with #royalbaby updates and comments with it trending worldwide, while Facebook was full of status updates on the subject. Of course, it being a royal baby, the 24 hour TV news channels were all over the story and probably will be for quite some time.

The internet has certainly changed how we hear about important life events though. Gone are the days of long distance telephone calls to announce that baby Amy was delivered safe and well. Or writing letters to distant relatives in far-flung places who would find out about a pregnancy or birth a week or two later.

Facebook

Nowadays, scans of babies-to-be and pictures of babies just hours old pepper our Facebook timelines accompanied by double figure ‘likes’ and lists of congratulatory comments. If a friend you haven’t seen since childhood or a colleague you worked with on a project 10 years ago has a baby you generally know about it that day.

Twitter

In this case, Twitter was able to let us know who in the public eye cared about a royal baby enough to write 140 characters. These include:

David Cameron: “I’m delighted by the news that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are expecting a baby. They will make wonderful parents.”

Ed Miliband: “Fantastic news for Kate, William and the country. A royal baby is something the whole nation will celebrate.”

Lord Alan Sugar: “Congratulations The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are very pleased to announce that they are expecting a baby.”

Piers Morgan: “BREAKING NEWS: Kate Middleton’s pregnant.”

Cheryl Cole: “I’m sooooooo excited that we’re having a royal baby !!!! Congratulations to Kate and Wills !!!!!!”

David Walliams: “Congratuwelldone William and Kate. Very happy for you both. Dx”

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How did you hear about the royal baby? What do you think about sharing important life events on Facebook and Twitter? Let us know below.