Microsociology shifts away from macrosociology’s focus on the constraints of larger systems on the individual. Instead, microsociology focuses on how each individual comes to define the interactions, give meaning, and construct as sense of reality and the self. Shakespeare once wrote “All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players… one man in his time plays many parts.” Shakespeare’s writing relates to Goffman’s dramaturgical analysis of social interactions. One person can be a student, family member, or friend. It is in relation to others that these roles take meaning. They dictate acceptable behavior and establish some lines for communication. Through an interaction, a performance of lines, a face is created. There is a value to maintaining consistency with this face, if it is positive. Face is maintained with constant impression management at all fronts. At the backstage, the person’s personality can surface without fear of embarrassment. The constant monitoring of impressions occurs within the front stage. A person has different front stages depending on the audience. The actor’s performance also differs depending on expression that one plans to evoke.
Norms guide acceptable actions and reactions. But what happens when others do not follow the script? It causes confusion. Flash mobs are effective in gauging the confusion level produced from breaking norms. The spontaneous nature of a flash mob allows for disturbing the performances of others. Our class participated in a bird call flash mob on Thursday. Surprisingly, we had an audience. They were not too keen of our performance. Before I discuss the responses to the class flash mob, it is important to understand the average day in the Inner Circle and norms that were broken.
The Inner Circle has props: the seating arrangements and layout. Chairs faced inward to allow for communication of people within a table. However, this arrangement does not allow for social interaction across different tables. The norm is that people attend to their own business, whether it be eating, studying, or socializing within their table. So, a group of bird calls, if loud enough, would draw attention disturbing the norm.
I would consider the class flash mob unsuccessful, because it did not start abruptly and end abruptly. I did not really hear the initial call and I expected an echo response. If people were able to join in to the calling, we did not do a good way at creating that shock effect. There was no sense of group activity. To be fair, I was not loud enough or even near making any sounds that resembled any others. Not everyone involved risked their face and the gradual rise of calls helped conceal people from being noticed; it would have been more of a flashmob if people knew who made the sounds. A suggestion for a future flashmob is to try to choreograph the flash mob.
I noticed a couple of responses from observers. Some groups of people were trying to figure out where the noise came from or what the noise was. There was so much variation in calls and people found that amusing. When the calls were loud, there was a greater response. I remember at some point someone said it sounded like a pterodactyl. People realized what was happening quickly; so some joined the class. We were noisy since I saw a man in a suit with a name tag peak inside, probably from the registration table outside the Inner Circle. At the peak of the performance, the people from the neighboring table said that performers should stop making a fool out of themselves. This reaction applies to what Goffman describes in the following quotation: “person will have two points of view- a defensive orientation toward saving his own face and a protective orientation toward saving the other’s face” (pg 14). Whenever someone else is embarrassing around us, sometimes we in turn feel embarrassed. With a protective orientation, the spectator may ignore the act. With a defensive orientation, I tried to bring myself to making a call once but I felt embarrassed because it was not the usual face that I perform. So, I only called softly.
I mentioned that I evaluate this flash mob as unsuccessful. However, I tried to provide an example on a flash mob with the following video. It has components that lacked in our flash mob: abrupt start and ending. In New York, a group of volunteers in order to advocate for gun control hosted a flash mob in Times Square. People suddenly lay down and had other people draw outline of their figure. Inside the figure, words related to gun control were written. Then people got up and left.
Video
http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/protest-gun-violence-in-times-square/512ccb3778c90a151e000013
Norms guide acceptable actions and reactions. But what happens when others do not follow the script? It causes confusion. Flash mobs are effective in gauging the confusion level produced from breaking norms. The spontaneous nature of a flash mob allows for disturbing the performances of others. Our class participated in a bird call flash mob on Thursday. Surprisingly, we had an audience. They were not too keen of our performance. Before I discuss the responses to the class flash mob, it is important to understand the average day in the Inner Circle and norms that were broken.
The Inner Circle has props: the seating arrangements and layout. Chairs faced inward to allow for communication of people within a table. However, this arrangement does not allow for social interaction across different tables. The norm is that people attend to their own business, whether it be eating, studying, or socializing within their table. So, a group of bird calls, if loud enough, would draw attention disturbing the norm.
I would consider the class flash mob unsuccessful, because it did not start abruptly and end abruptly. I did not really hear the initial call and I expected an echo response. If people were able to join in to the calling, we did not do a good way at creating that shock effect. There was no sense of group activity. To be fair, I was not loud enough or even near making any sounds that resembled any others. Not everyone involved risked their face and the gradual rise of calls helped conceal people from being noticed; it would have been more of a flashmob if people knew who made the sounds. A suggestion for a future flashmob is to try to choreograph the flash mob.
I noticed a couple of responses from observers. Some groups of people were trying to figure out where the noise came from or what the noise was. There was so much variation in calls and people found that amusing. When the calls were loud, there was a greater response. I remember at some point someone said it sounded like a pterodactyl. People realized what was happening quickly; so some joined the class. We were noisy since I saw a man in a suit with a name tag peak inside, probably from the registration table outside the Inner Circle. At the peak of the performance, the people from the neighboring table said that performers should stop making a fool out of themselves. This reaction applies to what Goffman describes in the following quotation: “person will have two points of view- a defensive orientation toward saving his own face and a protective orientation toward saving the other’s face” (pg 14). Whenever someone else is embarrassing around us, sometimes we in turn feel embarrassed. With a protective orientation, the spectator may ignore the act. With a defensive orientation, I tried to bring myself to making a call once but I felt embarrassed because it was not the usual face that I perform. So, I only called softly.
I mentioned that I evaluate this flash mob as unsuccessful. However, I tried to provide an example on a flash mob with the following video. It has components that lacked in our flash mob: abrupt start and ending. In New York, a group of volunteers in order to advocate for gun control hosted a flash mob in Times Square. People suddenly lay down and had other people draw outline of their figure. Inside the figure, words related to gun control were written. Then people got up and left.
Video
http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/protest-gun-violence-in-times-square/512ccb3778c90a151e000013