Fragmented Selves in Social Media Narratives: A Baumanian Reading of Pakistani Influencer Culture

Abstract

This Study explores the phenomenon of fragmented digital identity in the context of Pakistani influencer culture, with a focus on the ways in which social media influencers perform multiple, sometimes contradictory, identities across multiple online platforms. The aim of the study is to analyze the ways in which fragmented identity performance is constructed through varied narrative styles, including persona development, emotional self-disclosure, and self-presentation on social media sites. The Study is important because, while the phenomenon of influencer culture has become the mainstay of identity development in the digital era, very little scholarly attention has been paid to the fragmented nature of identity in the non-Western world. The study is based on a qualitative thematic content analysis of publicly available content from Pakistani influencers on Instagram and TikTok from May to September 2025. The analysis is informed by the sociological perspective of Zygmunt Bauman, whose theory of liquid modernity understands the concept of identity as unstable, fluid, and continually reconstructed in the dynamic social environments. The results of the analysis show that the construction of the influencer identity is fragmented through the enactment of contradictory roles, the deployment of emotional vulnerability, and the adaptation of the self-presentation across different digital platforms. The fragmented construction of the influencer identity is an expression of the instability of the concept of digital identity in general. The analysis contributes to the field of digital identity and influencer culture by highlighting the fact that the fragmented construction of the influencer identity is not a deficiency of coherence but a fundamental feature of the construction of the concept of identity.

Keywords: Digital Identity; Identity Fragmentation; Influencer Culture; Social Media Narratives; Zygmunt Bauman; Liquid Modernity