English edit

Etymology edit

Back-formation from sharenting. Analyzable as Blend of share +‎ parent.

Noun edit

sharent (plural sharents)

  1. (neologism) A parent who documents their child's upbringing on social media, typically by posting photos, videos, etc.
    • 2013 May 18, Nione Meakin, “The pros and cons of 'sharenting'”, in The Guardian:
      If you're not one yourself, you've probably come across one, perhaps even taken advantage of apps such as Unbaby.me, which helpfully replaces the endless feed of baby pictures with images of cats or, if you prefer, bacon. Because sharents have a tendency to get a little … carried away.
    • 2020, Veronica Barassi, Child Data Citizen: How Tech Companies Are Profiling Us from Before Birth[1], page 134:
      During the interview, Maya told me that she was a passionate sharent; she loved to post about her son and tell stories about his life.
    • 2020, Leah A. Plunkett, Sharenthood: Why We Should Think Before We Talk About Our Kids Online[2], page 55:
      Through YouTube channels, blogs, Instagram accounts, and other digital platforms, commercial sharents use their families' everyday experiences to create revenue-generating content that is available to the public.
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:sharent.

Hyponyms edit

Verb edit

sharent (third-person singular simple present sharents, present participle sharenting, simple past and past participle sharented)

  1. (neologism) To document one's child's upbringing on social media, typically by posting photos, videos, etc.
    • 2016, Suzie Hayman, John Coleman, Parents and Digital Technology: How to Raise the Connected Generation[3], page 46:
      If you are going to sharent, it's worth being careful about the privacy settings you establish.
    • 2020, John Palfrey, forward of Leah A. Plunkett, Sharenthood: Why We Should Think Before We Talk About Our Kids Online, page X:
      Adults are sharenting because the structure of the online world makes it very easy to do and even encourages it.
    • 2021, Anna Potter, Renee Barnes, “The 'Sharent' Trap: Parenting in the Digital Age and a Child's Right to Privacy”, in Catherine Archer, Donell Holloway, Francesca Stocco, Karen Murcia, Michele A. Willson, editors, Young Children's Rights in a Digital World: Play, Design and Practice[4], page 286:
      Thus, this study aimed to ascertain how Australian parents are sharenting on social media, and to understand both their awareness of risk, and their perceptions of their children's rights to privacy.
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:sharent.