Goffman talks about the importance of the face in interactions. Faces give of emotions that people use o interpret how a person is behaving or what type of person they are. Goffman talks about how individuals have to maintain a certain type of face in order to keep up an appearance. Once a person is assigned or assigns a face to themselves, they must live up to it. Goffman also talked about how interactions between individuals are dramaturgical. In other words people put on a certain act in everyday life in order to avoid embarrassment. From day to day, individuals act a certain way or wear a certain face in order to try and fit within the cultural norms and expectations.
In the flash mob that our class participated in, many people stepped outside of the norms and did something that could be considered embarrassing. People do not usually do bird calls within an average day. By having a large group of people doing bird calls, it created a type of embarrassment for not only those doing the bird calls, but also for those within the area of where the flash mob was occurring. Having a large group also made it a situation where it was not as embarrassing as it could be if someone were to just go and do bird calls by himself or herself. Within our class there was a subset of norms that were acceptable at the time, so in that way it was easier to save face because we had other people doing it in accordance. Many people outside of the experience did not react to the bird calls although it was completely out of the ordinary because they might have felt like it was too embarrassing to even acknowledge that something odd was occurring. Around where I sat, some people reacted angrily by trying to shush us and another person yelled for us to “grow up”. Once the bird calls became more apparent to those around us, some people also laughed at it. When participating in the flash mob, although it was a fun activity, it was embarrassing, especially for some people. When doing the bird calls I did not really want anyone to see me doing it, despite the fact that because I am a silly person, this could be something that is not so surprising. But within the social context of the situation, regardless of my “face”, it was not a socially acceptable behavior. I also noticed that within our class some people only did a bird call once or twice, or quietly did it to avoid any embarrassment. Fully participating in the flashmob might have been something that would cause them to lose face, so they did not really want to do it. Despite this, our team members did well in employing dramaturgical loyalty, discipline, and circumspection. Many people continued to bird calls in order to keep the performance going. Some people had a little more difficulty with discipline because it was hard not to laugh at what we were doing. And we minimized risk by choosing the inner circle as our flash mob setting because it was a place in which no one could really complain about noise because the area was already noisy and we also did not go on with the bird calls too long so that people really did eventually get seriously disturbed by it. Not fully participating also was a way to avoid being labeled as weird or odd. Another aspect of the social mob that was important to how embarrassed someone got was due to the surroundings in which we were, that is, we were surrounded by peers. The bird calls could have been even more embarrassing is a professor passed by and saw a student of theirs participating, they might think of them differently. This creates a problem for the type of face the student was portraying when they were with their professor. Although this experiment may have not technically been a flash mob because it was not explicitly apparent that we were a group, it was something that involved behavior that would be considered embarrassing. Doing this flash mob separated us from the dramaturgical performances that we usually do to avoid embarrassment thus forcing us into an interesting social situation.
In the flash mob that our class participated in, many people stepped outside of the norms and did something that could be considered embarrassing. People do not usually do bird calls within an average day. By having a large group of people doing bird calls, it created a type of embarrassment for not only those doing the bird calls, but also for those within the area of where the flash mob was occurring. Having a large group also made it a situation where it was not as embarrassing as it could be if someone were to just go and do bird calls by himself or herself. Within our class there was a subset of norms that were acceptable at the time, so in that way it was easier to save face because we had other people doing it in accordance. Many people outside of the experience did not react to the bird calls although it was completely out of the ordinary because they might have felt like it was too embarrassing to even acknowledge that something odd was occurring. Around where I sat, some people reacted angrily by trying to shush us and another person yelled for us to “grow up”. Once the bird calls became more apparent to those around us, some people also laughed at it. When participating in the flash mob, although it was a fun activity, it was embarrassing, especially for some people. When doing the bird calls I did not really want anyone to see me doing it, despite the fact that because I am a silly person, this could be something that is not so surprising. But within the social context of the situation, regardless of my “face”, it was not a socially acceptable behavior. I also noticed that within our class some people only did a bird call once or twice, or quietly did it to avoid any embarrassment. Fully participating in the flashmob might have been something that would cause them to lose face, so they did not really want to do it. Despite this, our team members did well in employing dramaturgical loyalty, discipline, and circumspection. Many people continued to bird calls in order to keep the performance going. Some people had a little more difficulty with discipline because it was hard not to laugh at what we were doing. And we minimized risk by choosing the inner circle as our flash mob setting because it was a place in which no one could really complain about noise because the area was already noisy and we also did not go on with the bird calls too long so that people really did eventually get seriously disturbed by it. Not fully participating also was a way to avoid being labeled as weird or odd. Another aspect of the social mob that was important to how embarrassed someone got was due to the surroundings in which we were, that is, we were surrounded by peers. The bird calls could have been even more embarrassing is a professor passed by and saw a student of theirs participating, they might think of them differently. This creates a problem for the type of face the student was portraying when they were with their professor. Although this experiment may have not technically been a flash mob because it was not explicitly apparent that we were a group, it was something that involved behavior that would be considered embarrassing. Doing this flash mob separated us from the dramaturgical performances that we usually do to avoid embarrassment thus forcing us into an interesting social situation.