Phone ALWAYS eats first
Today, I watched a TikTok where a young woman was talking about how she filed taxes for a dog that made $20,000 on Tiktok this past year and we must be living in some kind of simulation for this to be true. This had me thinking about all the famous pets whose usernames I could recall off the top of my head... and the truth is that I know way too many. Duke the golden, Doug the pug, Goose, these are just a few of my favorite dog influencers. Should these dog influencers be entitled to a portion of their earnings? Should it be mandatory that these earnings be spent on grooming appointments, the highest quality of food, and the best toys for these dogs since they earned it? All of these questions should be ridiculous but they could become legitimate questions.
Families who post their children online have the same dilemma. What portions go to their children that have helped make their posts successful? I was shocked to read that JB Pritzker passed a law in 2023 that children under 16 will be entitled to a portion of their video earnings that will be placed in a trust for them until they turn 18. There is this family of influencers called the LaBrant family who are often in the public eye for being accused of exploiting their children online. From having them dance to a song that the public deemed "inappropriate" to being very loud about their beliefs, they are often a topic of controversy. I decided to look at this families digital tattoo and wow is it huge. How will these 5 children feel about their whole lives being in the public eye when they grow up? How will they feel that their parents decided to home school them due to their internet presence and the need for their oldest to stay home to help with the younger children? How will their 2nd oldest daughter feel about the video that talks about her illness which many thought she had cancer in and now call the "cancer scam"? The want to share their faith and the raising of their children is extremely brave.
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| LaBrant Family from The LaBrant Fam YouTube Channel |
Taking a look at my most used platform, Instagram, I look extremely superficial. I mainly post stories on my Instagram rather than posts. I like the idea that these stories "disappear" after 24 hours. Some of my stories I decide to put in my highlights on Instagram so my followers can flip through these 4 categories if they want. My last two posts are both "photo dumps" meaning they have multiple photos. The photo dump from May 2, 2024 is wrap up of the month of April. It features a beautiful Chicago sunset, a picture of my partner and I at the Chicago Cubs game, flowers from the farmer's market, pasta, and a few pictures of my two friends and I from our trip to Charleston. Do I usually do this many activities in one month? Absolutely not. If I had chosen to post a photo dump from January it would have only included pictures of me rotting on my couch. I went and looked back at my archived stories. They included birthday posts for friends, pictures of food at a restaurant, places I have visited, sporting events, and concerts. None of these posts represented my day to day life. They didn't feature my classroom, commute to and from work, my home cooked meals, what book I was reading, nor my exercise routine. I mainly post when I am doing some sort of activity. My day to day has not made it on my feed because it is boring and uninteresting. Although my feed is incredibly positive, it is not real life. It is a combination of all the places and activities I have done which takes up only like 10-20% of my time maximum while the other 80% of an average day in my life is no where to be found. Why do I HAVE to post a story for my friend's birthday even when I am with them celebrating? Am I worried that the internet will think that we are not best friends anymore? Why does my phone have to eat first even when I am absolutely starving? My social media reveals way too much but way too little all at the same time. It reveals who my real friends are, some of my locations, my relationship status, and what my favorite foods are. However, it reveals nothing about my profession, my commitment to spin classes, or my love for reading.
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| My Instagram story from 4/4 |
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This was a great piece, Anna. You ask some really important questions- wicked questions, for sure.
ReplyDeleteHi Anna, I feel like I am all over the place on both Instagram and Facebook. I focused on this same topic for my blog. I include a lot about teaching which I noticed a focus on behavior and what I wished teachers had. The last post I shared was a cartoon that read, "Well there goes another school teacher who makes 10 million bucks a year. Meanwhile I am working my butt off playing professional hoops and I can barely pay rent." I laughed but I wish the pay between basketball players and teachers were reversed. I love my job, but my posts show what a struggle it can be. I also post a lot about family and outings which do not happen daily. I come home tired and hungry and want to just do nothing. I don't ever post about that. :) I feel the same way about posting things I do. Like will my "friends" on social media question why I did not post about my weekend activities. I remind myself that I do not have to post everything I do.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Anna! It's so relatable that our lives as depicted on social media don't reflect the entirety of who we are or how we spend our time. Also, you raise great questions about families who post a lot about their children. A few months ago I read a novel about a teen who sued her influencer mother because she wouldn't take down posts the girl didn't want public. (Hate Follow by Erin Quinn-Kong.) I didn't love the book, but it made me think a lot about families who have chosen to make their lives (and thus their kids' lives) public. I think we'll see more legal cases like this as the first generation of influencer kids grows up.
ReplyDeleteHi Anna-through the course of this week I hadn't even considered the digital footprint that could be generated by influencers--or especially influencer pets or kids! The early influencer kids are getting to the age where they can share how they feel about having essentially grown up online, so I was glad to see you mention the JB Pritzker law--I hadn't heard of that before now either.
ReplyDeleteHi, I see you mentioned Charleston. Were you talking about Charleston SC or Charleston West Virginia. Just for the asking, My hometown is near Charleston, South Carolina. Again we have to be mindful of what we say, Who we say it to and what time we do it never the less, how many pictures and videos we record. By the way, your picture have great meaning. I see where the digital Tattoo can come in handy.
ReplyDeleteHi, Anna! I really love your post this week. One of my "Roman Empires" as TikTok would say is mom influencers. Being a millenial, I feel like I grew up with the internet and saw so many mom's making motherhood and thier whole family content. It's been interesting because now a lot of those kids who grew up on our screens are 18 and sharing their stories. Many have expressed that they feel exploited. Some even shared how the posts and blogs they appeared in were faked. I mean, as you touch on, we all sometimes only portray the glimmers of our life, not the bad parts. What does that do to a child though? We already put pressure on our kids to do well in school. What long-term effects will they experience as adults after spending their childhoods pretending for the camera? I'm proud that Illinois has done some work to protect children ii n this way. Have you heard of Ruby Franke? She was a mom blogger in Utah who portrayed a picture perfect life. Turns out, she was abusing her children behind-the-scenes. She is now in prison for child abuse and neglect. This is an extreme case, but it points to how we need to be doing whatever we can to protect our most vulnerable from exploitation online.
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