Monetising the Dividual Self: The Emergence of the Lifestyle Blog and Influencers in Malaysia

Anthropology of Media #8

by Julian Hopkins

Combining theoretical and empirical discussions with shorter “thick description” case studies, this book offers an anthropological exploration of the emergence in Malaysia of lifestyle bloggers – precursors to current social media “microcelebrities” and “influencers.” It tracks the transformation of personal blogs, which attracted readers with spontaneous and authentic accounts of everyday life, into lifestyle blogs that generate income through advertising and foreground consumerist lifestyles. It argues that lifestyle blogs are dialogically constituted between the blogger, the readers, and the blog itself, and challenges the assumption of a unitary self by proposing that lifestyle blogs can best be understood in terms of the “dividual self.”

329 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 2, 2019

Reviews

[Eldisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have so many thoughts about this book. Considering it was required for a global studies class in college, I was excited about the research topic and potentially what interesting findings the author could find. However, I found that the language and storytelling aspect within this book was substantially lacking. It felt like the storyline did not progress, and instead, I was receiving too much theory work and not enough drama. Although by the end of the book I understood what the author was talking about, I found myself skipping over certain parts that seemed lacking in substance. Overall, I would not recommend for you to read this in your free time.