Research highlights that a key overarching reason why family carers do not utilize support services is that many people who perform the duties of caregiving do not necessarily self-identify as a carer. Understanding the development of carer identities may thus be understood as crucial for the utilization of different health services directed towards carers. Based on the EU funded Innovage project, this project aims to describe and analyse how older carers supporting and caring for an older person understand and socially negotiate their life situation and identity as carers on a Swedish online social forum. Theoretically the project departs from a constructionist approach and methodologically it has been inspired by a specifically designed method for studying the cultures and communities that emerge from online computer-mediated or Internet-based communications, called netnography. The results indicate that in the process through which a carer role is acquired, a significant change in self-perception occurs. The presence or absence of recognition for the older carers’ capacity, is understood as filtered through the needs of the cared for person, making the carer identity into an invisible self. At the same time, the opportunity for online communication may help to create a virtual space of social recognition through which negative and positive experiences attached to caring can be discussed. The significance of online communication is here understood as the possibility to be recognized, and feel empowered by other carers.