From Self-Presentation to Self-Commodification: A Critical Sociological Reading of Influencers’ Transformations in the Digital Environment

Abstract

This study offers a critical sociological reading of the transformation of influencers’ presence in digital spaces—from self-presentation as an interactive act to self-commodification as an economic resource managed according to the logic of platforms and the market. The research adopts a composite theoretical approach that draws on Erving Goffman’s contributions to self-presentation and impression management, George Herbert Mead’s symbolic interactionism and the formation of identity through the “generalized other,” and Axel Honneth’s “concept of recognition,” complemented by contemporary literature on the attention economy and algorithmic structures.

The study employs a critical theoretical methodology supported by comparative case illustrations (global, Arab, and Algerian contexts) to highlight the mechanisms driving the shift from social performance to the construction of a marketable personal brand. It argues that the influencer’s self is now reconfigured within permanently connected digital stages, where boundaries between “front stage” and “backstage” collapse, and interaction metrics are transformed into liquid symbolic capital. The analysis demonstrates how platform architectures and algorithms quantify recognition and convert it into performance indicators, prompting influencers to adopt “commodifying” strategies such as image management, emotional labor, and content circulation aligned with market trends.

Furthermore, the study reveals the accompanying social and ethical implications—fragility of authenticity, erosion of privacy, and the reproduction of inequalities in visibility and profitability—while noting local specificities in the Algerian context linked to the emergence of a digital advertising market and disparities in technological resources.

The study’s contribution lies in integrating the perspectives of Goffman, Mead, and Honneth within a unified framework that explains the shift from social recognition to monetized recognition, and in proposing analytical axes for reassessing platform policies and influencer marketing practices in ways that preserve the human dimension of digital identity.