Instagramming the Self: Gender norms, authenticity strategies and influencer culture

The aim of the project is to explore how the notion of authenticity is perceived, (re)produced and (re)constructed by female Instagram influencers.The notion of authenticity has gained prominent place in the latest research on social media and digital communication platforms. In the influencer culture on Instagram authenticity has become the main criteria of success and influencers employ different strategies to produce an authentic self-presentation. Authenticity is also economically productive for influencers, as it enables them to successfully sell products and recommend brands to their followers. The “authenticity bind” of social media creates a paradoxical situation in which “authentic” can no longer be constructed in opposition to “staged” or, in the vernacular language of social media, “fake”, because all performance (not only) on social media is staged, controlled and curated. Being authentic on social media thus means subjecting one’s own body, taste and consumer choices to a set of often invisible and delicate rules. According to available data, about 53% of all Instagram users are women. Among influencers, if we define them as people who are able to monetize their presence on the platform, reports suggest that 70% are female. The project thus seeks to explore the dynamics of gendered norms of self-performance and the authenticity bind of social media, taking into account the role of algorithms and AI in shaping the the experience of both influencers and their followers.