Influencers and Self-Employment

Timeline

November 2023-August 2024

About the project

Social media “influencers” have achieved success through self-made endeavors, such as content creation and entrepreneurship. As influencers share their journey and personal experiences in self-directed work online, these narratives may inspire their viewers to also pursue self-employed work, especially in an unstable job market. This project examined this phenomenon through the lens of entrepreneurial labor–the normalization and acceptance of risk for the freedom and autonomy associated and promised with independent work, typically in creative industries. We conducted interviews with creative aspirants–individuals who started or are hoping to start their own independent creative career–to understand the role of influencers and social media platforms more broadly in their creative endeavors.

My role

I served as the Principal Investigator (PI) of this project and received support from undergraduate student, Matthew Prock, and my advisor, Julie Hui. As PI, I led the development and execution of our research project goals. I also designed an interview protocol, conducted interviews, performed qualitative data analysis, and led the writing of a manuscript for publication. Through this project, I began my first research mentee experience, where I led weekly meetings to discuss research progress and support the development of the mentee’s research skills and knowledge.

Publications

• Shanley Corvite, Matthew Prock, and Julie Hui. (2026). “In-Parallel with Someone Else”: Self-Employed Creative Careers Inspired by Social Media Influencers. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction.