MOTHERHOOD IN THE AGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA: CONNECTION IN A DISCONNECTED WORLD

By Nicole Fuge

It’s 2:47am. The house is dark, the world is quiet, except for the soft cries of your baby, who refuses to sleep. You shuffle to the couch, exhausted, phone in hand. A quick scroll reveals another mum, wide awake, posting from somewhere else in the world. She’s up too. And suddenly, you feel a little less alone.

Welcome to motherhood in the age of social media.

A VIRTUAL Village

Once upon a time, the village was a literal place, a circle of support formed by family, neighbours, and friends. Today, that village exists in a different form. It’s a group chat with women you’ve never met. It’s a late-night TikTok that makes you laugh-cry. It’s a reel that says exactly what you’ve been feeling but haven’t had the words for.

Social media has revolutionised how mothers connect. It offers instant access to advice, solidarity and shared experience, often in real-time. Whether you’re Googling "is green baby poo normal?" or searching for ideas on how to manage big emotions, there’s a reel, a post, or a fellow mum ready to offer wisdom… or at least empathy.

For many, it’s a lifeline.

Conversations You Can’t Always Have Offline

Motherhood is joyful, yes, but it’s also overwhelming, isolating, and at times, incredibly raw. Not every mum has a support network close by. Some may not feel safe or comfortable opening up to those around them. This is where the digital world steps in.

Platforms like Instagram, Threads, and TikTok have become spaces where mums can talk about the things they might not be able to say out loud: the anxiety, the rage, the resentment, the grief for a life that no longer fits.

Opening up online often means finding others who say, “Me too”.

And that, sometimes, is everything.

Work-Life Reimagined

Alongside emotional support, social media has also created economic opportunities for mothers, particularly in the form of remote work and content creation. What began as sharing glimpses of daily life has, for some, turned into full-blown careers.

The term "mumfluencer" might sound flippant, but behind it lies a growing movement of women who’ve turned motherhood into a business, whether that’s through partnerships, product lines, writing, podcasting, or selling digital resources.

It’s not always glamorous. It takes strategy, consistency, and a thick skin. But for many women, social media offers flexibility they wouldn’t otherwise have. It allows them to work from home, around nap schedules, school pickups, and sick days. In a world where the 9-5 rarely fits the reality of mothering, that’s no small thing.

The Flip Side

Of course, not all that glitters is gold. For every inspiring story or heartwarming connection, there’s a darker thread that runs through the digital motherhood space.

Endless scrolling can feed the comparison trap. Highlight reels don’t show the chaos beyond the frame. What looks like a perfect life might be a moment of calm amidst a storm, or sometimes, a filtered illusion. When you're knee-deep in laundry and sleep-deprivation, watching someone else's curated version of motherhood can feel deflating at best, crushing at worst.

Then there’s the mental load of constantly showing up. For mothers trying to build a brand or following online, the pressure to be ‘on’, to post, to engage, to perform, can quickly become exhausting. Add in trolls, criticism, and the ever-changing algorithm, and the dream job can start to look more like a relentless hustle.

Social media can connect us, but it can also isolate us further if we start measuring our worth against strangers online.

Navigating the Digital Motherhood Space

So how do we embrace the good and protect ourselves from the not-so-good?

It starts with intention. Use social media to connect, not compare. Follow accounts that uplift, educate, or make you laugh. Mute or unfollow those that leave you feeling less than. Remember that no one’s life is as perfect as it looks on Instagram.

Take breaks when you need to. Real life (the messy and the mundane) is always more important than keeping up with a content calendar or chasing likes.

And if you're one of the many mums using social media to build something; whether it’s a business, a platform, or just a small community of likeminded souls; know that your voice matters. Your story matters. And someone out there is probably reading your post in the middle of the night, grateful to feel a little less alone.

A New Kind of Motherhood

Social media isn’t a perfect solution. But it is a powerful tool. It’s reshaping what motherhood looks like, how we connect, how we work, how we share and support one another.

At its best, it offers us community in the chaos. Not a replacement for real life, but a reminder that, somewhere out there, another mother is awake too.

And she gets it.

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ISSUE 05