EP77- How Influencers Impact Our View of Motherhood with Jo Piazza

Diving too much into everything social media offers, to some extent, can be considered a self-sabotaging act. It makes you compare and aspire to ideals that aren't entirely in tune with what's real. Today, Bestselling Author and Award-Winning Journalist, Jo Piazza, shares a different perspective. In this episode, Jo shares about her podcast, “Under the Influence,” her upcoming book she co-wrote with friend, Christine Pride entitled "We Are Not Like Them," her thoughts on mom influencers, and those who spend so much of their time spectating on social media. For Jo, to limit the influence of social media on one's personal life, a mindful use should be practiced. If even Beyonce doesn't make you feel good, unfollow her! 

Find out how you can limit the influence of influencers in this episode of the Mamas in Training Podcast with Jo Piazza!

Instagram is a Performance

Jo recalls a time she was attached to her baby, where her only appendage was her thumb scrolling through her phone on Instagram. There, she realized how the app worked. Because the app shows you more of what you engage with, the app consequently showed more momstagrammers to Jo. Scrolling further, she noticed how these moms made everything seem so perfect and stress-free looking with their pictures. It was all bright and lovable—adjectives that you can't always easily associate with motherhood and pregnancy. With Jo's years of experience working with magazines, she quickly discerned what Instagram was serving her to see. These moms weren't simply sharing photos of their days. They're creating editorials.

For Jo, it was weird to see pics of friends, families, and food next to these heavily directed photos of mom influencers; and for the average Instagram user, it can be confusing too. It becomes more about branding and selling. Influencers represent motherhood and pregnancy in ways that are more aligned with their sponsor's brand and less on how it really is in reality for most moms. Because of this, an unrealistic image is mainstreamed. It's not healthy! It creates a kind of aspiration for some moms that, while it may not be entirely fake, is still otherwise significantly staged. Social media—and media in general—feeds mothers the myth that they need to love motherhood and pregnancy because "it's this and it's that" on social media when, in reality, it's not.

Listen to Jo's discovery behind the world of Influencers in this episode of the Mamas in Training Podcast!

About Jo Piazza:

Jo Piazza is an award-winning reporter and editor who has written for the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the New York Daily News, New York Magazine, Glamour, Marie Claire, Elle, and Salon. She has appeared on CNN, NPR, Fox News, the BBC, and MSNBC. Her novel, The Knockoff, with Lucy Sykes became an instant international bestseller and has been translated into more than seven languages.

Jo received a Masters in Journalism from Columbia, a Masters in Religious Studies from NYU, and a Bachelors in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania. She is also the author of the critically acclaimed If Nuns Ruled the World and Celebrity Inc: How Famous People Make Money. She currently lives in San Francisco with her husband and their giant dog.

Outline of the episode:

• [03:15] About the book, How To Be Married?
• [04:40] On Jo's upcoming book entitled, We Are Not Like Them
• [06:51] How the incident with George Floyd influenced the book
• [08:44] Jo: "Writing a book about race nearly ended our friendship."
• [11:58] "Perfect moms and perfect babies" make everything look easy on Instagram
• [15:02] There's something else to Instagram other than just pics with friends and food
• [19:43] Jo's experience in becoming a mom influencer
• [21:52] How culture, media, and influencers affect mothers
• [25:32] We are sold to the idea that women need to be a bit of everything perfect; it's cultural
• [27:34] Work against the design of social media and limit your use of it
• [30:51] Self-care is not just spas and pedicures; it's protecting yourself

Resources:

Website: https://www.jopiazza.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jopiazzaauthor/?hl=en

Podcast “Under the Influence: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/under-the-influence-with-jo-piazza/id1544171101

Pre-Order "We Are Not Like Them" Now on:

https://www.amazon.com/We-Are-Not-Like-Them/dp/1982181036

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