This paper addresses self-presentation among home-dwelling octogenarians living in the Faroe Islands. The purpose was to examine how older adults make meaning of ageing in interaction and examine the possible impact of social and cultural norms on this meaning making practice. The study is based on social constructionism. Interviews were conducted with both married couples and individual men and women during the spring of 2019. The interviewees projected a positive impression of life as older adults. They used humour to cover up health problems, and downward social comparison with others to enhance their own active lifestyle. They included third-party compliments to enhance the impression of appearing ‘younger’ than their chronological age, thus reconciling the misalignment between age norms and lived experience.

本文讨论了居住在法罗群岛的八十多岁居家人士的自我展示。目的是研究老年人如何在互动中理解衰老的意义，并研究社会和文化规范对这种意义形成实践的可能影响。该研究基于社会建构主义。2019 年春季对已婚夫妇和个别男性和女性进行了采访。受访者对老年人的生活有着积极的印象。他们用幽默来掩盖健康问题，并通过与他人的向下社会比较来提升自己积极的生活方式。它们包括第三方赞美，以增强看起来比实际年龄“年轻”的印象，从而调和年龄规范和生活经历之间的错位。