My media niche to put it “simply” is :
“Quirky Internet Teens”
and their brand across all Social Media.
Now, what does that even mean? I would put a handful of internet influencers in this category of “Quirky Teen” (some may not even be teens but they share this same similar vibe) – like Emma Chamberlain, Best Dressed, Ur Mom Ashley, Avery Ovard etc. These are a mix of female personalities that only recently become popular online. The reason I believe its MY niche is because they’ve normalised alot of things for me. I grew up watching YouTubers who made life seem as if it always had a fun VSCO filter over it, that I had to aspire to this bubbly expectation. I want to do what they’ve done, in my DA – normalise things for young people and do it in a way that can positively influene them. And though i’ve mainly pointed out Youtubers I’m talking about their presence online as a whole: Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok etc.
If you look at these YouTubers videos, they seem like everyday people going through everyday things – but if you look at their instagram feeds they look like models. So where does the line of quirky come in? Through their personalities they seem like they could be the kind of person youd want to hang out with, but on their Instagrams they might seem less approachable because of their aesthetic and style.
These Quirky Internet Teens have established that its okay to have an aesthetic, a style, you’re own individual personality… and its also okay to normalise different things we all go through. Most “Quirky Internet Teens” have normalise anxiety and depression for me to understand today, which may sound like a negative thing. But it really isn’t. They’re helping future generations understand that it’s okay to be down, that it’s okay to be going through something. Other viewers might take it in a different way.. are these Infuencers “glamourising” mental health issues? Or do others see it the same as me, to bring attention to mental health and help other teeangers/young adults see that its perfectly normal.
Throughout creating and shaping my DA what I hope to investigate is how does this attention to mental health or other issues we go through as young adults, that these Quirky Teens bring impact their viewers. As ethnography requires me to carry this research out during a period of time with the goal of achieving an analytical desciption of this influencer culture I have to start to think about know how to carry out this research. (Daymon, C and Holloway, I, 2011) Do these influencers indeed glamourise and entice teenagers to create a facade or anxiety and depression or does it help educate and bring light to its viewers. Will my DA hinder important issues like mental health through its aesthetics or will it help other people? Through my interest of aesthetics and styles I want to focus on how and why can internet personalities or groups POSTIVIELY impact a demographic of young adults. These influencers are able to stay active on all platforms engageing their audiences across social media. What is it about them that makes people keep coming back? What makes their audience “aspire” to be them or look up to them instead of envying and cancelling them. I want to be able to know at the end of the semester how my Digital Artefact influences our audience. By following our engagemnt statistics that compliment the media I will be creating – How does a persona or personality change the way an audience interacts with an influencer/media team.
References:
– Daymon Christine and Holloway Immy (2011) ‘Ethnography’, Qualitative Research Methods in Public Relations and Marketing Communications. Routledge: New York.
swoon 