Sharenting Across Generations: Walking the Tightrope Between Online Sharing and Privacy in the Digital Age
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2025-07-08
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en
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This research investigates how and why parents’ sharenting practices (e.g., sharing of
children’s images and details on social media) have changed across Generations X, Y and Z.
Most prior research views sharenting as an individual practice driven by parental motivation
or privacy concerns, neglecting the influence of broader societal, cultural, technological,
generational shifts. This study challenges that perspective by conceptualising sharenting as a
dynamic social practice. The empirical context combines 15 semi-structured interviews and a
netnography of five influencer parents. Working within the Consumer Culture Theory (CCT)
research tradition and utilising Practice Theory as an enabling lens, this research analyses
sharenting through the interconnected elements of meanings, materials, and competencies.
Furthermore, it incorporates Cognitive Dissonance Theory to understand how parents navigate
internal conflicts between the desire to share and the need to protect their children’s privacy.
The findings reveal distinct generational configurations of sharenting practices. Generation X
favours conventional platforms with privacy controls, Generation Y shows a divide between
open and anonymised sharenting, and Generation Z anticipates dissonance, and thus, often
avoids public sharenting entirely. These differences reflect how generational cohorts negotiate
digital parenting within their socio-technological environments. The research develops a
generational framework for understanding sharenting, highlighting how practices evolve in
response to technological affordances, cultural values, and ethical reasoning. Theoretically, it
expands marketing and digital parenting literature by linking generational identity to shifting
consumer practices. On a methodological level, it showcases how generative AI can be used
ethically to transform visual data into artistic representations. From a managerial perspective,
this research offers valuable insights for brands navigating the ethical tensions of sharenting
by tailoring their strategies to meet generational preferences and privacy expectations.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen