THE PRIVATE DOMAIN OF A PUBLIC FIGURE: Displaying Home Among Interior Influencers in Sweden

Abstract

Intrigued by what happens when a person decides to share their private home on a public platform like Instagram, I wanted to study the phenomenon of the interior influencer’s home in relation to the dichotomy of private/public. By performing interviews with four Swedish interior influencers I have looked into what home means to them, their reasons and motives for sharing their private spheres on public platforms, as well as how they perceive notions of private/public/personal connected to the home. The study understands the influencer’s home as a complex phenomenon informed by its physical presence coexisting with the presentation of the home online. I have been working with the term emotional labour as a way of conceptualising the interior influencers’ experiences, while Goffman’s terms of front and back regions have contributed to my understanding of how these interior influencers live their lives. By producing knowledge about the relationship between the interior influencers and their homes, I wish to contribute to the general knowledge of the meaning of the home within a Swedish context.