Sixteen thousand viewers have watched Sam and Jennika Anderson unload their groceries in their kitchen and tend to their newborn baby. These slices of reality haven't been delivered via TV; rather, viewers have been transfixed by the Andersons' video blog, or vlog, called Samika.
The Andersons are part of a growing trend of family vloggers who express their views and feelings through video or string together video clips of their everyday lives and post them online.
An untold number of family vlogs flourish on YouTube, many with loyal followings large enough to generate revenue for the producers. The content stands in stark contrast to the abundance of less-than-family-friendly content on YouTube and other video streaming outlets. Some users see vlogs as an innovative way for families to connect in the digital age.
“It’s the modern-day record-keeping of chronicling our journeys that we have been blessed to inherit. Vlogging is the way to do that now,” said Daphne Mallory, a family business expert and a regular contributor to Entrepreneur. “I really think they can be instrumental in strengthening families, especially because the next generation really responds to media more than a family member leaving a journal or genealogy on sheet paper."
But others say the consuming nature of vlogging and sharing personal family interactions with millions of people through the Internet can have a downside for participating family members.
Transcending immediate family
Arguably the most popular family vloggers, the Shaytards, have an astounding 2.75 million YouTube subscribers. In 2011, the father of the Idaho family, Shay Butler, told Forbes magazine how his fascination with YouTube and the connection possibilities it offers inspired him to create and post his own videos.
In time, he had so many viewers that he was being compensated significantly by a portion of the ad revenue generated by views of his YouTube videos about his family.
"What once helped pay for groceries and utility bills had now turned into our main source of income," he told Forbes in one of the magazine's series of stories about successful video entrepreneurs. "Once we started the daily vlogs our viewers and pay immediately tripled. It was amazing!!! I was now making more money than I had ever made doing something that I actually LOVED doing."
While Butler's experience is extraordinary, the viewership of most family vlogs typically transcends the vloggers' small circle of family and friends.
For example, over 47,000 viewers subscribe to Samika, something Jennika Anderson said they never anticipated.
The vlog started out as a challenge. Could the couple vlog every day of what they expected to be a "busy, crazy year"?
"Let’s document it and see what happens, which was a huge risk because we didn’t know what to expect,” Sam Anderson recalled. “There could be complications with pregnancy. I could be without a job. But we also wanted to remember how we felt in that moment."
The popularity of their vlog prompted the couple to arrange a recent visit with viewers, who braved the rain to connect personally with the Andersons at an outdoor mall.
“We were shocked to see how many people came out,” Jennika Anderson said. “People wanting to drive over an hour to tell us how much our vlog means to them was insane.”
Her husband added that the event brought a whole new dimension to what was initially a personal project. “When you meet someone who watches your vlogs, they know you and they feel like we should know them. It’s kind of funny at first,” he said.
Why do people watch?
"They’re not unlike daytime talk shows," says Dr. Karen Riggs, professor of media studies at Ohio University. "In the sense that we like to be voyeurs, we like to know what’s going on in other people’s lives."
Joanne Egbert, a new mother in Boston, Massachusetts, who occasionally watches a few family vlogs, including Samika, sees vlogs as an alternative to what’s on television.
“I feel very new to (this) field of my life, so going online and finding other mothers … and finding what they did for certain things like nap times or bottle times," she said. "I find just knowing what other people have done informative in helping me to know how to approach it with my own daughter.”
Others find a fascination in observing people with whom they have nothing in common.
“These families are not too far from my age but they live a totally different life than I do. It’s interesting to me to see how they’re maybe two years older than me and their life is completely different,” said Lauren Peoples of New Jersey, a 26-year-old who works in communications at a pharmaceutical company. “You kind of feel like you’re part of the family. They go on little trips or do things with the kids and you want to tune in and see what’s going on. … It’s an escape.”
Vloggers have the same experience when they make an effort to connect with their following.
“It’s eye-opening to learn about other people too,” Sam Anderson said. “People learn about us but we gain a lot from them — their different cultures, beliefs. … If we stopped today, we’d feel a loss.”
Risks and reservations
Parenting and new media expert Jim Taylor, author of "Raising Generation Tech: Preparing Your Children for a Media-Fueled World," has mixed feelings about vlogs.
“It is a way to share family experiences with friends and extended family who are at a distance,” he said. “The downside is that time spent focusing on the vlog is time not spent being in the moment of an experience.”
Taylor also said some parents could start placing a value on celebrity by getting “caught up in (the) ‘I want to go viral’ mentality. If they can get their super-cute baby playing with their super-cute dog, it’ll go viral and they’ll become famous.”
However, many family vloggers say they don't harbor expectations of stardom. They see themselves leveraging the possibilities for connection that social media offers in a way that brings their families closer together.
“I said to the girls, 'Do you want to start a YouTube channel? Because I’m totally game, if that’s something you think would be fun to do,'" recalled Kristy Glass, Sam Anderson’s older sister, who started vlogging with her three daughters and husband in New York City.
“We just sometimes take time out to do some vlogging. It’s like playing a game or going to a restaurant. It’s one more thing that we can all do together that has a purpose," she said. "We are saying to the world, 'Here, we are a family, this is how we do it, for better or worse, mostly worse probably.' It makes us pause and come together for a second.”
Glass’ 12-year-old daughter produces her own vlog.
“Her last one got 1,500 hits, which is a lot more than we’ve been getting lately," Glass said. "She sets up her camera and she does her little thing, and then she edits the whole thing, all by herself.”
Glass explained that she would much rather see her daughter contributing to YouTube than simply consuming its offerings.
With the number of people viewing vlogs of families, privacy concerns arise, particularly surrounding children.
"When you put your kids on the Web, you’re exposing them," Taylor said. "Realistically the chances of anything bad happening are very slim, but they can happen.”
Most families that vlog take some safety precautions: They don't reveal precisely where they live or where their kids go to school, among other details.
Risks and opportunities
Another risk to having a presence on social media is that it opens the door to the possibility of harassment. The Andersons say they get a negative remark online about once a month.
“Luckily, you can close channels of communication if someone is being rude," Sam Anderson said.
That risk of vulnerability, however, is requisite to reaping the rewards of connection and, in some cases, financial compensation.
The Andersons reflected on the surprising opportunities that Samika has brought them. The advertising revenue generated by views of their vlog makes up for Jennika Anderson not having a job, enabling her to stay home with their son.
“Our lives could be so different in a year, even to the point where we could be doing this for a career — just sharing things online,” said Sam Anderson.
The Andersons wonder about how their son will react someday watching his parents prepare for his arrival and seeing his first year of life on camera.
“We made a video a week before he was born of our feelings going into that, like a message for him,” Sam Anderson said. “Looking back on that, for us, will be awesome, and for him, too.”
Email: jpeacock@deseretnews.com Twitter: @thejoepeacock
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