@article{THESIS,
      recid = {5989},
      author = {Norton, Kate},
      title = { Becoming “That Girl”: A Digital Ethnography of  Productivity and Wellness Culture on YouTube},
      publisher = {University of Chicago},
      school = {M.A.},
      address = {2023-06},
      number = {THESIS},
      abstract = {This paper uses a combination of digital ethnographic  methods and in-depth interviewing to examine productivity  and wellness culture on YouTube in the wake of the 2020  “that girl” trend. The first section focuses on how the  interviewees relate to productivity and routine. Second,  conceptions of authenticity in “that girl” content are  analyzed on both the content creation side and the viewer  side. The third section examines how influencers and  viewers negotiate boundaries as an act of self-preservation  in creating and consuming productivity content. The last  section focuses on TikTok and how reactions to wellness and  productivity content differ depending on whether it is  short-form or long-form.  I explore the effect of consuming  “that girl” content on viewers while keeping in constant  dialogue with creators’ own conceptions of their content’s  impact by examining their values and beliefs surrounding  authenticity, productivity, and consumerism. Drawing upon  updated theories of front stage and backstage behavior for  the digital world (Goffman 1956) such as porous  authenticity (Abidin 2018) and the productivity of negative  affect (Berryman and Kavka 2018; Reade 2020), I find that  productivity and wellness influencers operate in a gray  area of constructed intimacy with their viewers. Further, I  find that influencers depend on their community of  subscribers to give their work meaning, while viewers often  attach themselves more to a genre of content than a  specific creator and negotiate boundaries with wellness  content to mitigate the negative effects it can have on  their mental health.},
      url = {http://knowledge.uchicago.edu/record/5989},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.6082/uchicago.5989},
}