Goffman explains that in any interaction it is in one’s best interest to “control” the conduct of others. This refers to presenting one’s self in a certain way, so that both parties understand how to interact. The way an individual presents herself/himself during a social interaction inevitably controls how the other party responses. Goffman explains that as an individual presents themselves they are perceived in that particular fashion for the duration of the interaction and therefore is objectifying their self to that kind of treatment. They present their self through socially accepted clues or signs and the respondent responds with similar clues and signs. The two participants then can decide by their cues which role to play in the interaction. Goffman agrees that when this system is not effective and a participant breaks the social norms of behaving, chaos emerges from the other individual and they often feel awkward, not knowing how to respond.
During our breach project in the inner circle, I thought of Goffman's theory and applied it to our social interaction with the other UIC students. The bird call and response was done over a 20 minute period. The beginning bird calls were spread out between a few minutes and went unnoticed by the other students. When the bird calls began to become more repetitive and distinct, the students began to look around, quietly questioning what was going on. Finally when the bird calls were constant for five minutes, students in larger groups begin to shout things at us like “grow up” or “shut up,” while other students joined in and began responding to our bird calls with their own animal sounds.
Relating this experiment to Goffman's piece, I observed that this is type of social interaction is one that is unplanned and often forces people to be uncomfortable. As I explained in the beginning paragraph, Goffman demonstrates how we give off signs and social symbols that demonstrates to the other individuals how they should respond. By displaying characteristics that are usually not attributed to humans (bird calls) and disrupting a large social setting, we made the interaction between other individuals almost impossible. This explains why so many students ignored us and completely did not react at all. This also demonstrates why some students yelled “grow up” or “shut up” because normally we would attribute this kind of behavior to a child and it is thought of as annoying or silly. This experiment really displays Goffman's ideas how significant our roles in social interactions can be and what happens when something messes up that order.
During our breach project in the inner circle, I thought of Goffman's theory and applied it to our social interaction with the other UIC students. The bird call and response was done over a 20 minute period. The beginning bird calls were spread out between a few minutes and went unnoticed by the other students. When the bird calls began to become more repetitive and distinct, the students began to look around, quietly questioning what was going on. Finally when the bird calls were constant for five minutes, students in larger groups begin to shout things at us like “grow up” or “shut up,” while other students joined in and began responding to our bird calls with their own animal sounds.
Relating this experiment to Goffman's piece, I observed that this is type of social interaction is one that is unplanned and often forces people to be uncomfortable. As I explained in the beginning paragraph, Goffman demonstrates how we give off signs and social symbols that demonstrates to the other individuals how they should respond. By displaying characteristics that are usually not attributed to humans (bird calls) and disrupting a large social setting, we made the interaction between other individuals almost impossible. This explains why so many students ignored us and completely did not react at all. This also demonstrates why some students yelled “grow up” or “shut up” because normally we would attribute this kind of behavior to a child and it is thought of as annoying or silly. This experiment really displays Goffman's ideas how significant our roles in social interactions can be and what happens when something messes up that order.