From attention to affect: gendered practices of status-seeking among Instagram content creators

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores the dynamics of status gaining and signalling among Instagram micro-influencers. The article posits that within the influencer industry, the process of status acquisition is undergoing a shift from attention to affect, where the collection and display of public expressions of sentiment have become central to accruing social status. The emphasis on affective responses and interactions, however, goes hand in hand with the constant quantification and commercialisation of affect, which becomes conflated into measurements of engagement. Furthermore, the concept of calibrated femininity is introduced to account for the gendered dimension of status-seeking practices and highlight their entanglement with a fine-tuned representation of the self and the body in accordance with social media analytics. The empirical research consists of qualitative interviews (n = 25) with Instagram micro-influencers, as well as insights emerging from digital ethnography. The results show how content creators construct social status as affect through three interconnected practices: the nurturing of their audience, the calibration of femininity, and the display of affective responses as status symbols.