| Summary: | The amount of time Swedish people spend online is constantly increasing. Here,the conditions for self-presentation is drastically different from the physicalworld. Written text, along with pictures, videos and sound acts as a distancingmask between the user and their actions. Online individuals have the possibilityto easily control their self-presentation along with the impressions they want toevoke in others using the platform. For influencers this presented image is alltheir followers get to see, which has created a new type of comparison and influence. With their big number of followers influencers have the ability to affecta lot of people, so to investigate what it is that they actually present online ishighly relevant. The purpose of this study is to get an understanding of how influencers use impression management to present an image of themselves to theirfollowers on Instagram. The purpose is also to investigate whether these influencers follow gender norms in their self-presentations on the platform. Thedata presented in the study has been collected through the qualitative methodnetnography. Semi-structured observations were conducted on 7 Swedish Instagram- influencers. The theories used to analyze the gathered data was Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical perspective along with the book Daring Greatly written bythe researcher Brené Brown. The main focus was put on Goffman’s ideas aboutimpression management and idealization as well as Browns perspectives on gender norms and shame. The results that emerged from the study show that these influencers do present an all around positive picture of themselves online. In addition to this these influencers often follow female gender norms when presentingthemselves on the platform.
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