iParenthood: A Trend Study on Seeking Balance in a Digital World...is Joy Found when Missing Out?

Abstrakt

How and why do iParents seek to Miss Out? And who are they?
Companies must know their customers in order to create value for them. For advertising and media companies, this implies to stay updated on when, how and for what audiences engage with digital touch points. But what if yet-to-be recognized trends are transforming the needs and desires of these audiences, enticing them to find joy in less digital lives? iParenthood is a case study on how and why parents in Greater Copenhagen, a so far very digitally oriented audience, seek new joy in contemporary parenthood. The thesis commences by explicating the recent digitalization of society, as an ongoing adoption of digital media by Danish families, especially the digitally native Alpha children who have come to represent an entirely new group of digital consumers. It seems, that in their role as caretakers, iParents are constantly reminded that the family has immigrated into heavy digital consumption. They experience that their Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) sometimes lead to moments of absent presence, while they, ironically are continuously ‘staged online’. Delivered in bundles, digital advertising is perceived as annoying and often irrelevant, further invigorating the feeling that the world has become heavily digitalized. It seems, that what is meaningful to iParents, is no longer to stay continually connected to the world around them. It seems, that recent mediatization of parenthood and the digital consumption of children has influenced how contemporary iParents perceive ‘good parenting’. JOMO behavior finds legitimacy among iParents as missing out may solve the problems that they currently face in a digital world. It is suggested that the case sample represents an ‘early adopting’ group of iParents of JOMO and that the delivered insight into their felt needs and problems and desires and dreams in parenthood, may enrich the relevance of future (digitally delivered) value propositions to the Danish population of iParents. Whether these iParents ‘practice what they preach’ becomes a question of sociological and psychological argumentation, as social comparison in digital parenthood seem to be a sensitive act. Actual behavior or wishful thinking, our research suggests that iParents in Greater Copenhagen are seeking a Joy of Missing Out.