Author(s)
- Leaver, Tama
Abstract:
Parents are increasingly sharing information about infants online in various forms and capacities. To more meaningfully understand the way parents decide what to share about young people and the way those decisions are being shaped, this article focuses on two overlapping areas: parental monitoring of babies and infants through the example of wearable technologies and parental mediation through the example of the public sharing practices of celebrity and influencer parents. The article begins by contextualizing these parental practices within the literature on surveillance, with particular attention to online surveillance and the increasing importance of affect. It then gives a brief overview of work on pregnancy mediation, monitoring on social media, and via pregnancy apps, which is the obvious precursor to examining parental sharing and monitoring practices regarding babies and infants. The examples of parental monitoring and parental mediation will then build on the idea of “intimate surveillance” which entails close and seemingly invasive monitoring by parents. Parental monitoring and mediation contribute to the normalization of intimate surveillance to the extent that surveillance is (re)situated as a necessary culture of care. The choice to not survey infants is thus positioned, worryingly, as a failure of parenting.
Document:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2056305117707192
References:
| Abidin, C. (2015a). Communicative ♥ intimacies: Influencers and perceived interconnectedness. Ada: A Journal of Gender New Media and Technology, (8). doi:10.7264/N3MW2FFG Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Abidin, C. (2015b). Micromicrocelebrity: Branding babies on the Internet. M/C Journal, 18(5). Retrieved from http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/viewArticle/1022 Google Scholar | |
| Abidin, C. (2016). Visibility labour: Engaging with influencers’ fashion brands and #OOTD advertorial campaigns on Instagram. Media International Australia, 161, 86–100. doi:10.1177/1329878X16665177 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Allen, M. (2013). What was Web 2.0? Versions as the dominant mode of internet history. New Media & Society, 15, 260–275. doi:10.1177/1461444812451567 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Andrejevic, M. (2007). iSpy: Surveillance and power in the interactive era. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. Google Scholar | |
| Andrejevic, M. (2013). Infoglut: How too much information is changing the way we think and know (1st ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. Google Scholar | |
| Andrejevic, M., Burdon, M. (2015). Defining the sensor society. Television & New Media, 16, 19–36. doi:10.1177/1527476414541552 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Bayne, S., Ross, J. (2011). “Digital native” and “digital immigrant” discourses. In Land, R., Bayne, S. (Eds.), Digital difference (pp. 159–169). SensePublishers. Retrieved from http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-6091-580-2_12 Google Scholar | |
| Beilinson, J. (2016, July 28). Glow pregnancy app exposed women to privacy threats, consumer reports finds. Retrieved from http://www.consumerreports.org/mobile-security-software/glow-pregnancy-app-exposed-women-to-privacy-threats/ Google Scholar | |
| Bennett, S., Maton, K., Kervin, L. (2008). The “digital natives” debate: A critical review of the evidence. British Journal of Educational Technology, 39, 775–786. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
| Bert, F., Passi, S., Scaioli, G., Gualano, M. R., Siliquini, R. (2016). There comes a baby! What should I do? Smartphones’ pregnancy-related applications: A web-based overview. Health Informatics Journal, 22, 608–617. doi:10.1177/1460458215574120 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Blum-Ross, A., Livingstone, S. (2016). Sharenting: Parent blogging and the boundaries of the digital self. Popular Communication, 15(2), 110–125. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/15405702.2016.1223300 Google Scholar | |
| boyd, d. (2014). It’s complicated: The social lives of networked teens. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Google Scholar | |
| Bucher, T. (2017). The algorithmic imaginary: Exploring the ordinary affects of Facebook algorithms. Information, Communication & Society, 20, 30–44. doi:10.1080/1369118X.2016.1154086 Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
| Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre . (2015). Sharing pictures of your children online. Retrieved from https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/articles/Sharing-pictures-of-your-children/ Google Scholar | |
| Clark, L. S. (2013). The parent app: Understanding families in the digital age. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar | |
| Clarke, R. (1988). Information technology and dataveillance. Communications of the ACM, 31, 498–512. doi:10.1145/42411.42413 Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
| CNBC . (2016). Grayson’s owlet story. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=172&v=MJj_TNrIFdU Google Scholar | |
| Davis, J. L., Jurgenson, N. (2014). Context collapse: Theorizing context collusions and collisions. Information, Communication & Society, 17, 476–485. doi:10.1080/1369118X.2014.888458 Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
| Dean, J. (2010). Blog theory: Feedback and capture in the circuits of drive. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Google Scholar | |
| Doctorow, C. (2016, July 29). Pregnancy-tracking app was riddled with vulnerabilities, exposing extremely sensitive personal information. Retrieved from http://boingboing.net/2016/07/29/pregnancy-tracking-app-was-rid.html Google Scholar | |
| Foucault, M. (1979). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison (Sheridan, A. , Trans.). Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin. Google Scholar | |
| Foucault, M. (1990). The history of sexuality, Vol. 1: An introduction (Hurley, R. , Trans.) (Reissue ed.). New York, NY: Vintage. Google Scholar | |
| Helmond, A. (2015). The platformization of the web: Making web data platform ready. Social Media + Society, 1. Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/2056305115603080 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
| Holloway, D., Green, L. (2016). The Internet of toys. Communication Research and Practice, 2, 506–519. doi:10.1080/22041451.2016.1266124 Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
| Holloway, D., Green, L., Livingstone, S. (2013). Young children and their Internet use (EU Kids Online). London, England: The London School of Economics and Political Science. Retrieved from http://www.cci.edu.au/reports/ZerotoEight.pdf Google Scholar | |
| Holloway, D., Green, L., Love, C. (2014). “It’s all about the apps”: Parental mediation of pre-schoolers’ digital lives. Media International Australia, 153, 148–156. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
| Johnson, S. A. (2014). “Maternal devices,” social media and the self-management of pregnancy, mothering and child health. Societies, 4, 330-350. doi:10.3390/soc4020330 Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Jones, C., Ramanau, R., Cross, S., Healing, G. (2010). Net generation or digital natives: Is there a distinct new generation entering university? Computers & Education, 54, 722–732. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2009.09.022 Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
| King, D. (2014). Marketing wearable home baby monitors: Real peace of mind? British Medical Journal, 349, Article g6639. doi:10.1136/bmj.g6639 Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Kleinke, A. (2014, August 22). Jonathan | The brand new mini. Retrieved from http://jonathanhenry.de/ Google Scholar | |
| Leaver, T. (2015a). Born digital? Presence, privacy, and intimate surveillance. In Hartley, J., Qu, W. (Eds.), Re-orientation: Translingual transcultural transmedia. Studies in narrative, language, identity, and knowledge (pp. 149–160). Shanghai, China: Fudan University Press. Google Scholar | |
| Leaver, T. (2015b). Researching the ends of identity: Birth and death on social media. Social Media + Society, 1. Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/2056305115578877 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
| Leaver, T., Highfield, T. (2016). Visualising the ends of identity: Pre-birth and post-death on Instagram. Information, Communication & Society. Advance online publication. doi:10.1080/1369118X.2016.1259343 Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
| Lee, N. (2016, January 8). Presenting the best of CES 2016 winners! Retrieved from https://www.engadget.com/2016/01/08/presenting-the-best-of-ces-2016-winners/ Google Scholar | |
| Livingstone, S. (2009). Children and the Internet. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Google Scholar | |
| Livingstone, S., Sefton-Green, J. (2016). The class: Living and learning in the digital age. New York: New York University Press. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Lupton, D. (2013). The social worlds of the unborn. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Lupton, D., Pedersen, S. (2016). An Australian survey of women’s use of pregnancy and parenting apps. Women and Birth, 29, 368-375. doi:10.1016/j.wombi.2016.01.008 Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
| Lupton, D., Pedersen, S., Thomas, G. M. (2016). Parenting and digital media: From the early web to contemporary digital society. Sociology Compass, 10, 730–743. doi:10.1111/soc4.12398 Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
| Lupton, D., Thomas, G. M. (2015). Playing pregnancy: The ludification and gamification of expectant motherhood in smartphone apps. M/C Journal, 18(5). Retrieved from http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/1012 Google Scholar | |
| Lyon, D. (2001). Surveillance society: Monitoring everyday life. Berkshire, UK: Open University Press. Google Scholar | |
| Lyon, D. (2014). Surveillance, Snowden, and Big Data: Capacities, consequences, critique. Big Data & Society, 1. Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/2053951714541861 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
| Martino, E. A. (2016, June 29). Peace of mind with Owlet Baby Care. Retrieved from http://happilyevaafter.com/peace-of-mind-with-owlet-baby-care/ Google Scholar | |
| Marwick, A. E. (2013). Status update: Celebrity, publicity, and branding in the social media age. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Google Scholar | |
| Marwick, A. E., boyd, d. (2011). I tweet honestly, I tweet passionately: Twitter users, context collapse, and the imagined audience. New Media & Society, 13, 114–133. doi:10.1177/1461444810365313 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Nissenbaum, H. (2009). Privacy in context: Technology, policy, and the integrity of social life. Stanford, CA: Stanford Law Books. Google Scholar | |
| Oakes, J. (2015, October 22). The secret to better sleep moms: Owlet baby monitor. Retrieved from http://www.positivelyoakes.com/blog/2015/10/22/the-secret-to-better-sleep-moms-owlet-baby-monitor/ Google Scholar | |
| Owlet Baby Care . (2013). Owlet do good: Big data. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=28&v=Ez5aeLqPhBQ Google Scholar | |
| Owlet Baby Care . (2015). More than just a gadget: The owlet vision. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT9Vc68BfTI Google Scholar | |
| Owlet Baby Care . (2016a). Home. Retrieved from http://www.owletcare.com/ Google Scholar | |
| Owlet Baby Care . (2016b). Privacy. Retrieved from http://www.owletcare.com/privacy/ Google Scholar | |
| Owlet Baby Care . (2016c). Terms and conditions. Retrieved from http://www.owletcare.com/terms/ Google Scholar | |
| Papacharissi, Z. (2014). Affective publics: Sentiment, technology, and politics. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Pawlowski, A. (2014, August 29). How to announce a baby’s birth when you’re a former Apple employee. Retrieved from http://www.today.com/health/former-apple-employees-baby-announcement-goes-viral-1D80112771 Google Scholar | |
| Reed, S. (2016, August 15). How boomer Phelps became Rio’s accidental style icon. Retrieved from http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/how-boomer-phelps-became-rios-919489 Google Scholar | |
| Rettberg, J. W. (2014). Seeing ourselves through technology: How we use selfies, blogs and wearable devices to see and shape ourselves. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Seko, Y., Tiidenberg, K. (2016). Birth through the digital womb: Visualizing prenatal life online. In Nixon, P. G., Rawal, R., Funk, A. (Eds.), Digital media usage across the lifecourse (pp. 50-66). London, England: Routledge. Google Scholar | |
| Selwyn, N. (2009). The digital native: Myth and reality. Aslib Proceedings, 61, 364–379. doi:10.1108/00012530910973776 Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Senft, T. M. (2013). Microcelebrity and the branded self. In Hartley, J., Burgess, J., Bruns, A. (Eds.), A companion to new media dynamics (pp. 346–354). Chichester, UK: John Wiley. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Smith, G. J. D., Vonthethoff, B. (2017). Health by numbers? Exploring the practice and experience of datafied health. Health Sociology Review, 26, 6–21. doi:10.1080/14461242.2016.1196600 Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
| TechCrunch . (2015, August 18). Owlet Baby Care. Retrieved from https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/owlet#/entity Google Scholar | |
| Thomas, E. (2014, August 30). Introducing the iBaby, A life-changing experience. The Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/29/apple-baby-website-new-mini-andreas-kleinke_n_5737670.html Google Scholar | |
| Tiidenberg, K., Baym, N. K. (2017). Learn it, buy it, work it: Intensive pregnancy on Instagram. Social Media + Society, 3. Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/2056305116685108 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
| van Dijck, J . (2013a). The culture of connectivity: A critical history of social media. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| van Dijck, J . (2013b). “You have one identity”: Performing the self on Facebook and LinkedIn. Media, Culture & Society, 35, 199–215. doi:10.1177/0163443712468605 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| van Dijck, J . (2014). Datafication, dataism and dataveillance: Big Data between scientific paradigm and ideology. Surveillance & Society, 12, 197–208. Google Scholar | |
| van Dijck, J., Poell, T. (2016). Understanding the promises and premises of online health platforms. Big Data & Society, 3. Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/2053951716654173 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| van Zoonen, L . (2013). From identity to identification: Fixating the fragmented self. Media, Culture & Society, 35, 44–51. doi:10.1177/0163443712464557 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Veron, M. (2016, June 30). Crib with embedded smart sensors. Retrieved from http://pdfaiw.uspto.gov/.aiw?docid=20160183695 Google Scholar | |
| Whitaker, R. (2000). The end of privacy: How total surveillance is becoming a reality. Melbourne, Australia: Scribe Publications. Google Scholar | |
| Wilkinson, J. (2016, August 7). Michael Phelps’ son boomer makes a splash on Instagram ahead of Rio. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3727929/Michael-Phelps-son-Boomer-makes-splash-social-media-swimmer-prepares-Rio-Olympics.html Google Scholar |