Självkänsla och självpresentation online : En studie kring några individers självpresentationer i form av träningsbilder på Instagram och hur den upplevda självkänslan påverkar/påverkas av detta.

Sammanfattning: Through the birth and arise of the Internet people has been given great opportunities to make selective selfpresentations online, which in the long run has resulted in an easier retaining of the self- esteem than in the offline world. Simultaneously, the self- esteem has been viewed as a cause for both success and failure since it plays a vital role regarding our attitudes, emotional reactions and behavior. On this basis I wanted to study the relation between self- esteem and self-presentations closer. The purpose of the study is to describe and analyze how some users who publish training photos of themselves on Instagram experience how they present themselves within this forum and how these presentations affect/ are affected by their perceived self-esteem in their everyday life. The study is based on theories regarding self- esteem through Maslows’ hierarchy of needs, the inner and outer self-esteem, and social comparisons. Theories about self-presentation are also used through Goffman’s dramaturgical metaphor, impression management and self-enhancement. Previous researches emphasize users’ opportunities to selective self-presentation online, how the use may affect the self- esteem and how the self- esteem can affect the users’ self-presentations. Four semi-structured interviews have been conducted with women within a 21-27 year old span. The results showed that the respondents’ perceived outer self- esteem tended to rise by positive feedback such as “like”-notifications, comments and followers to their training photos. The respondents’ experienced that their outer self-esteem tended to decline by upward comparisons with users who also publish training images. Finally, the results show that the respondents want to present their most positive sides in the field of training in the photographs to present a desirable image of themselves towards their audiences, while they tend to avoid showing negative sides which could harm the audiences’ impression of them.