Is Instagram Influencers’ Activity Play, or Labor? Focusing on Instagram Micro-Influencers

This study focuses on whether the activities of Instagram micro-influencers, who are currently very influential among the MZ generation, in their 20s and 30s, are play or work. Accordingly, a one-on-one semi-structured in-depth interview was conducted with seven influencers who are currently active as Instagram micro-influencers. In addition, we also looked at what kind of efforts they are making to continue their micro-influencer activities and what kind of stress they are experiencing while doing micro-influencer activities. From this, three conclusions were drawn as follows. First, the activities of micro-influencers clearly include the nature of labor. Second, even within Instagram micro- influencers, there is a difference in the degree of recognition and effort to maintain according to the number of followers and influence. Finally, thirdly, micro- influencers are under stress due to bad intentions or spammy DM. In other words, the activities of micro-influencers are closer to labor than play, and it was found that they are under considerable stress.