My husband pointed out an ad he saw in a magazine for this gizmo, which is basically a glorified alarm clock. The spin that this alarm clock tries to play off is that you can enjoy "social sleeping": here's the ad copy:

"Sleep just became more social with the new iHome+Sleep app. Post updates to your social networks in the morning and at beditme, and even wake to a summary of what your friends did while you were sleeping. Our free app also lets you check weather, track sleep habits and sleep & wake to your iPod tunes. One-third of your life just got a lot more fun."

Then the art in the ad features a couple of super awesome sleepy-time social media updates like "Hitting the Z Key!" with posted nap times, wakeup and fall-asleep songs.

It's always weird when you see an advertisement that caters to the weirdest parts of humanity, like, say, breathalizer strips so you can get as drunk as legally possible before you drive. I mean this isn't unusual but it's weird seeing advertisers say "Look, we know you like to drink and you also need to drive. Being busted is a drag." Or those weight loss ads that say "Make your friends jealous!" How repulsive. We lose weight for health reasons, for very noble reasons. Oh and all right, if our friends look at us enviously for how great our ass looks in our jeans that's not so horrible either. Grr: you got us again, advertisers! You figured out how we're creepy.

That's basically what this ad is doing right now. Assuming that a.) We think we're so fabulously interesting that we're going to tell the world we're going to sleep and b.) We're so keyed up into social networking and everything that rather than get up, stretch, take a walk outside or whatever we need to immediately go online and see what we could have possibly missed while we were sleeping. Possibly some awesome comments on our own sleep post? ("Sweet dreams!" "You're awesome!" "I'm going to take pictures of you through your window while you sleep!")

Of course if you're my friend on Facebook and Twitter you know I'm the last person who should be critiquing those whose hands are heavy on the "update" button but there's a fine line between letting people know what you're up to and then telling people about the most mundane, possibly too personal elements of your life. You tell people you're going to sleep: are you also going to update when you just had a good poop or had sex? (Honestly I'm actually surprised I've never seen either of these things on Twitter or Facebook. Maybe my friends are all too demure).

I think for some reason telling people when you're going to sleep is just too far (and I've seen new moms post about their bleeding nipples), I think because at once you're telling the world, "Hey everyone, relax: I know you're upset that I'm not posting right now but it's because I'm sleeping. I'll be back soon, don't worry!" and also "I am going to be unconscious for a while so technically if you wanted to you could slip into my house and violate my privacy in many, many ways."

I think I would rather have the poop updates because those in the long run would be funnier and more exciting. So we just need an iToilet. But I would get a kick out of being the first to congratulate one of my friends on a job well done in that department.