Does sharing bring happiness? Understanding the sharenting phenomenon

The rapid changes in the field of technology have made the use of social media one of the routines in the life of the individual. This behaviour of parents who share information about their children with pictures, videos, stories, and status updates on social networks such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp is defined as “Sharenting”. Parents sharing information about their children on social media brings with it many risks. Children who do not realise the possible risks due to their age are abused by their primary caregivers. Understanding the experience of Sharenting, which is seen as a present danger to children, motivated the researchers to conduct this research. From this point of view, the aim of this research is to understand the reasons and effects of social media sharing of parents about their children. In this study, which was carried out in the phenomenological design of the qualitative research method, twelve participants were reached with the snowball sampling method. The data collected from the participants were obtained with a semi-structured interview form developed by the researchers. The semi-structured interview form consisted of nine open-ended questions, each of which was aimed at understanding the sharenting phenomenon. Within the scope of the research, online interviews were conducted with each participant with ZOOM Meeting, which lasted an average of 40 min. The interviews with the participants were transcribed. The obtained data were subjected to content analysis independently by three researchers who conducted the research. Afterwards, the research team evaluated the themes and categories determined by each researcher and finalised the findings. As a result, it was seen that the sharing experiences of the participants were gathered under six different themes. These themes were determined as sharenting “reasons”, “actions”, “platforms”, “effects”, “criteria”, and “awareness”. The reasons for sharenting of the participants were determined as “Collecting Memories”, “Affectivity”, “Staying in Communication”, “Approval/Being Liked”, “Providing Benefit with Followers”, “Followers/Relatives Reaction”, and “Change in Routine”. When the participants shared, “Increased Social Media Use”, “Evil Eye Anxiety”, “Positive Affect”, “The Feeling of Being a Good Woman/Good Parent”, “Addiction”, “Wondering About Others”, “Temporary Happiness”, and “Neutral Effect” effects were found. In the absence of sharing, the effects of “Neutral Effect”, “Impulse to Share”, and “Feeling Inadequate” were determined. The findings are presented by giving exemplary quotations for each theme.