More Than a Wife and a Mom: A Study of Mom Vlogging Practices in China

Abstract

Mom vloggers, stay-at-home moms streaming their daily life through short videos, suffer from both intensive motherhood and heavy digital work, yet receive little attention from researchers and designers. Toward understanding mom vloggers' motivations, practices, and challenges, we present exploratory results of an interview study (N=4) situated in China. Financial return, recording life and seeking agency/identity are found to be main motivators for mom vlogging. Revenues gained from advertising/selling products may make up for the decrease of income after leaving their paid employment, and together with the support and feedback from viewers, our participants' worth-based self-esteem is fulfilled. Typical challenges associated with mom vlogging include privacy leakage, invisibility of videos in early stage, and intensive digital work. Based on the findings, we propose design implications to accommodate the needs of mom vloggers.