In Goffman’s The Presentation of Self he explains that we all are actors of a great play called life. In social setting we take the role of the person we want others to perceive us as. In order for Goffman to analyze social interactions in everyday life he uses a concept called dramaturgy. A dramaturgical analysis would take into account how a person presents themselves in a social level or how we act in front of others. We only let people see what we want them to see and we can manage our situations or influence how people view us by manipulating what we say or do in front of them. Our actions change of course based on the situation like Goffman wrote that a persons “actions will influence the definition of the situation which they come to have,” (6) what this means is that we change our mannerisms or the amount of information we want people to perceive about us based on the setting we are in. We would not act like we are out with friends in a more conservative and structured setting like a classroom or a work meeting. Another thing he mention is that we may also act a certain way depending on the group of people we are with or the social status that people think we have. He claims “the tradition of his group or social status requires the kind of expression and not because of any particular response.” (6) An example that will help explain this is the structure of groups of people in high school we called them “cliques” sometimes people did things not because there was a real reason behind it but because it was expected to happen based on the status or role you played in a clique.
In the section of defensive attributes and practices what I found interesting is what Goffman calls “dramaturgical loyalty”. Dramaturgical loyalty is a part of keeping a line, the pattern of communication, from being known by others. In this case I believe that he means secrets are parts of lines and that these lines are kept in groups. If we go back to the example of social groups, or cliques, it is known that it is essential not to tell others outside of the group what we think of others not in the group or just group secrets. These groups are formed from the trust you may have of those in the group once you break that trust the group structure is broken and secrets that are out might break face, face is the social value that one places on themselves and the perception we want people to believe. Cliques play a great role and the audience (those not in the cliques) is perceiving what the cliques wants them to believe. He claims that in order for the loyalty in groups to be maintained the members of the group must not become attached to the audience another way to prevent disloyalty is to change the audience periodically so that the members have no time to create attachments.
Goffman’s piece on face work I found it to be the most accurate with my line of work. Face work is the consistency to keep face. In social settings face work needs to be consistent in spite of what happens. Face work is important in work settings that require you to maintain a character. My example of this is the line of work I do. I am a floor captain of a catering company it is important that when an event is taking place that I maintain a level of ease and make sure that if anything goes wrong at any point of the night during the event that no one can notice. It is up to us to make sure that in weddings the bride and groom are receiving every service they paid for and that they are happy and enjoying their night. Sometimes that doesn’t happen and many times I find my self frustrated but none of those emotions are displayed on the floor, everything happens in the back of the house in the kitchen where we are all constantly yelling order and in the waiters station were all sorts of disorders are uccuring at all moments of the night.
In the section of defensive attributes and practices what I found interesting is what Goffman calls “dramaturgical loyalty”. Dramaturgical loyalty is a part of keeping a line, the pattern of communication, from being known by others. In this case I believe that he means secrets are parts of lines and that these lines are kept in groups. If we go back to the example of social groups, or cliques, it is known that it is essential not to tell others outside of the group what we think of others not in the group or just group secrets. These groups are formed from the trust you may have of those in the group once you break that trust the group structure is broken and secrets that are out might break face, face is the social value that one places on themselves and the perception we want people to believe. Cliques play a great role and the audience (those not in the cliques) is perceiving what the cliques wants them to believe. He claims that in order for the loyalty in groups to be maintained the members of the group must not become attached to the audience another way to prevent disloyalty is to change the audience periodically so that the members have no time to create attachments.
Goffman’s piece on face work I found it to be the most accurate with my line of work. Face work is the consistency to keep face. In social settings face work needs to be consistent in spite of what happens. Face work is important in work settings that require you to maintain a character. My example of this is the line of work I do. I am a floor captain of a catering company it is important that when an event is taking place that I maintain a level of ease and make sure that if anything goes wrong at any point of the night during the event that no one can notice. It is up to us to make sure that in weddings the bride and groom are receiving every service they paid for and that they are happy and enjoying their night. Sometimes that doesn’t happen and many times I find my self frustrated but none of those emotions are displayed on the floor, everything happens in the back of the house in the kitchen where we are all constantly yelling order and in the waiters station were all sorts of disorders are uccuring at all moments of the night.