Mumfluencers: Family “Vlogging” and the Commodification of Childhood

Abstract

Social media, beginning as a benign way of connecting with friends, has, in recent years, become manifest in a corporate world of advertising and as a means of collecting revenue. “Influencers” are described as “a new type of third-party endorser who shape audience attitudes through blogs, tweets, and the use of other social media” (Freberg et al. 2011: 92). Considered to be a next generation of online celebrities, influencers promote their idealistic luxury lifestyles to “influence” consumers to purchase goods.