Video essay:

Video essay script:

Hello, welcome back to my channel, my name is Erin and in this video I am going to be summarising some interesting research I have been doing.

The purpose of my research was to find out how lifestyle influencers impact me and my decisions. The style of research was auto ethnographic so I used myself as a case study and just focused on my three favourite influencers over the course of a few weeks.

Lifestyle content across social media is what I would choose as my media niche, however I am very aware that not everyone would even know what this means. So I shall explain.

Lifestyle influencers are social media figures who share their lives in order to inspire their audience. They post their day to day activities as well as tips and tricks as to how people can grow in any aspects of their life. Many lifestyle influencers choose to focus their content on specific areas of life such as fashion, nutrition, travel, fitness or spirituality etc.

The three influencers I chose to study were Sarah’s Day, Elsa’s Wholesome Life and Montana Lower.

Throughout my research I created a field journal which I will link down below, I filled it with secondary research, network mapping, video notes and written notes.

Throughout my research I compiled a list of things I did because I saw it from these influencers:

• Cooked a roast dinner
• Thought about buying the same bikini, skincare and cooking book
• Thought about true love and what it means to be in love
• Learnt about intuitive parenting
• Started planning a coastal holiday
• Made an immunity shot
• Made a smoothie
• Watched many youtube videos
• Motivated to continue focusing on buying local produce
• Made a pinterest board of DIYs I want to do
• Read my book
• Laughed

All in all, I was surprised at how many little ways I am impacted by these people I look up to. I feel mixed emotions about this because I like to think I am quiet an individual person but perhaps I lean on trends more than I thought.

I still believe that these influencers make an overall positive impact on my life however I need to be more conscious of choosing when to consume their content. I found that when I’m feeling insecure or sad I am more likely to lean towards their aesthetics and materialistic things that they promote. However when I was happy and content with my life they tended to inspire and motivate me.

I now see influencers differently after doing this research. Reading about how it all works behind the scenes really opened my eyes to how big of an industry it is becoming and I want to try and only take inspiration from these people while developing my identity on my own.

Field journal:

Below is the link to my field journal which includes my secondary research, network mapping and my video and written notes.

https://erinwaugh.home.blog/2020/11/05/field-journal-for-ethnographic-research/