Like, Follow, Subscribe: Influencer Kids and the Cost of a Childhood Online
A must-read for anyone curious about the inner workings of influencerdom writ large and the family aspects of it in particular ... While Latifi is pretty clear about how upsetting she finds it all, she's also transparent about how complex these situations are, how much of this is uncharted territory that people are figuring out as they go along ... Throughout her excellent debut, she contextualizes parental choices within the capitalist hellscape we're stuck in without undermining the potential harm to their children. Some tradeoffs, she ultimately tells us, simply aren't worth it.
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Latifi deftly guides readers through a taxonomy of influencer tropes ... She dishes out statistics that underscore the market power of the influencer industrial complex ... Latifi also underscores the potential side effects for children of having their every experience ... At the same time, Latifi highlights the payoffs for children ... By focusing on the stories and practices of influencer parents, however, the book sometimes glosses over the fundamental role of tech giants ... Without deep analysis of that infrastructure, the book in places reads like an examination of how some parents foster childhood obesity, while discounting the role played by fast food chains, snack makers and soda companies. That may be deliberate.
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A balanced, compassionate, and frequently surprising look at an industry most of us know only on a superficial level.
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