Experience Stern | Faculty & Research

Overview: For the modern creator, "going viral" is the ultimate dream. But what happens when that dream starts to feel like a digital cage? In new research entitled, “Audience Entanglement: How Independent Creative Workers Experience the Pressures of Widespread Appeal on Digital Platforms,” NYU Stern Professor Julianna Pillemer, PhD student Yejin Park Roberts, and co-authors Spencer Harrison (INSEAD) and Chad Murphy (Oregon St. University) reveal a startling paradox in the creator economy: as follower counts scale up, creative freedom can take a hit. The authors explore how independent artists become "entangled" with their audiences — initially feeling trapped (versus liberated) by their newfound widespread appeal. Their research also uncovers how creators are able to overcome this negative state to foster a more functional relationship to their audience.

Why Study This Now: The creator economy is booming, with approximately 30 million creators being paid for their content. Research estimates that the value of the creator economy will reach half a trillion dollars by 2027. However, many creators, even those who experience widespread success, often experience a sense of “dysfunctional” audience entanglement – a distinctly negative psychological state – even amidst extreme objective success.  This study provides concrete strategies for both successful and budding creators. By encouraging a more functional relationship with their audience, creators can avoid burnout and continue to find meaning and value in their work.

What the Researchers Found: The study details a psychological cycle that creators undergo when their work gains a massive following. The core of their discovery is the shift from a state of feeling overly dependent on their audience to more effectively managing the relationship. To do this, creators can use three main strategies:

• Distancing from audience input: Setting strict boundaries on when and how they engage with the platform.
• Depersonalizing audience critique: Turning what would at times seem like an abject criticism into something neutral or even beneficial.
• Distilling personal standards: Focusing on their own creative goals and values instead of chasing audience approval.

What Does This Change: The authors’ work challenges the view that simply obtaining more and more followers is uniformly beneficial to creators, and offers a more balanced view on how these workers can see their work as sustainable.

Key Insight: “As creators build audiences on social media, those audiences — and the platforms in between — can begin to shape and strain the creative process,” notes Pillemer. “Our theory of audience entanglement explains how this dynamic can be both empowering and problematic, and how creators can navigate it.”