Abstract

In the context of the accelerated proliferation of digital communication spaces, motherhood is increasingly defined in terms of consumption practices. This research focuses on the emergence of maternal digital markets in 56 Instagram accounts in Chile. Using tools from digital ethnography, narrative analysis, and visual analysis, we explore the composition of images and text content to elucidate the ways in which the legitimacy journey –from experience to the offer of different products, workshops or general advice on parenting and care– mobilizes affects and normative ideals about good motherhood. The results suggest that the assemblage of algorithms, affects, and norms produces specific ideas about motherhood in interaction with users, thus shaping a mechanism of consumer surveillance. The analysis of the normative movement shows a discourse based on wanting, transforming motherhood into a project of self-construction, while affects are sustained by the promise of belonging and the mobilization of a sense of emotional and/or material lack.