Have you met dad influencers yet? National popcorn day, national hug day, national smile day – there are so many holidays that it seems like we’re celebrating something new every day. But the old favorites are still holding up and going strong. And today we have the chance to celebrate all that has to do with ‘dads’ for Father’s Day 2021.
Moms have been sharing their lives on social media for years, revealing their most intimate experiences about parenthood, and sharing their wisdom with other moms. We already covered the rise of momfluencers last month, but dads seem just as keen to pitch a slice from the influencer market through funny and inspiring posts about the trials and tribulations of the fatherhood.
Who are dadfluencers?
Dadfluencers are basically the underappreciated geniuses of social media. They are the perfect blend of humor and knowledge. With gorgeous family photos, hilarious captions, and insightful posts, they’ve quickly risen to popularity – just like momfluencers. There are currently over 13 million posts under the hashtag #fathersday and 6 million under the hashtag #dadlife on Instagram alone.
Let’s have a look at dad influencers
DJ Pryor
Dad-related content is also one of the most viral on the internet. In 2019, a spirited conversation between Tennessee comedian DJ Pryor and his son—who was only able to speak in baby gibberish—got over 67 million views on Facebook. And landed him on Good Morning America.
In the video, Pryor was talking to his son about the finale of the television show Empire, and he happily kept the conversation going, even though his son was not able to form intelligible sentences.
It’s worth noting that Pryor’s video wasn’t just cute. In his conversation with his son, Pryor demonstrated a vital parenting skill that helps babies learn to speak. As linguist Karla Holloway has pointed out, he was encouraging his son to develop his complex verbal abilities by actively engaging with his emerging language skills. His video modeled what good parenting looks like to millions of people and accidentally made Pryor a dadfluencer.
Dadfluencers could have a transformative effect on fatherhood and masculine identities by modeling healthy parenting techniques and sharing them on social media. The role of motherhood has long been seen by the society as central to a woman’s identity. Parenting was somehow more specific to women’s sense of self, and while men perceived fatherhood as something they “do”, women experienced motherhood as something they “are.” More recently it seems that a more active and involved approach to parenting is slowly becoming a component of conventional contemporary masculinity. While this is still a weak signal of social change, if the fatherhood version of dadfluencers becomes more dominant, healthier child development may follow. Dadfluencers may normalize a more equal division of parenting responsibilities.
Over the past half century, fathers in America have nearly tripled their childcare time, from 2.5 hours per week in 1965 to 7 hours per week in 2011. However, there is still a long way to go because the parenting time of mothers has also increased by 4 hours compared to 1965. With 14 hours per week, mothers still spend nearly twice as much time with their children compared to fathers. It’s important to remember that many households have yet to achieve equity in parental duties.
Alexis Ohanian
One dad influencer in particular, advocates the crucial role of social media in bringing about this change. The husband of Serena Williams, Alexis Ohanian, sees viral dad content as an indicator of social progress and believes that it can shift gender roles. Since his daughter Olympia was born, the Reddit co-founder has made fatherhood a staple of his public image. On Twitter and media interviews, he relentlessly beats the drums about the importance of paid paternity leave, speaking from his firsthand experience after the 16-week paid leave he took after the birth of his daughter.
He sparks up the discussion about Fatherhood not only in his personal feed, but also in the Advocates for Paternity Leve Facebook group, which launched in 2019. This closed community is part of his collaboration with Unilever brand Dove Men+Care on the Pledge for Paternity, an effort to encourage companies to introduce paid paternity leave policies.
“I’ve seen the tweets and comments about how being less successful (or doing what is traditionally considered ‘women’s work’ and caring for your kids) can be ’emasculating,’” he once told Glamour. Social media can be a big part of change, and with every new post dads share while running around errands or taking care of their kids or just doing ‘dad stuff’, we’re getting one step closer to the solution.
Regardless of whether you are a parent or not, here are some dadfluencers to follow – who are killing it on Instagram.
@justaconstructionguy
A while ago, Omar asked his daughter what influencer means. “Pshh, I could do that,” he said to his daughter, who explained the meaning of the word.
Not long after, he opened the Instagram account @justaconstructionguy and started posting carefully curated snapshots of his daily life. He made his first post on May 4, 2019, and after approximately 1 month, he had 333,000 followers.
Although he doesn’t pose on fairytale-like beaches, metropolises around the world, and expensive restaurants, Omar still does everything they do in their photos, he just does it on the construction site. He also posts photos from his favorite coffeeshop, romantic photos in which he extends his hand behind the back of another worker, photos of spontaneous laughter and similar content that we are used to on Instagram influencer profiles.
@thedadlab
Sergei Urban started DadLab to inspire people with fun activities they could do while educating their kids and spending quality time with them. He began sharing children’s science experiments and educational activities that he did with his children in 2015, and he soon became an online sensation with millions of followers. Currently he boasts over 7 million fans across Instagram, Facebook and Youtube. His Instagram is full of ingenious ideas to do with kids, offering everything from static electricity experiments to craft ideas. The father of the two is also the author of the bestselling book TheDadLab: 40 Quick, Fun and Easy Activities to do at Home.
To all the dads out there trying to make their kids and partner’s lives better: We see your efforts. Thank you for every wiped nose, every grocery shopping, and every school pickup. Happy Father’s Day!