Microsociology deals with the everyday human social interactions, it studies small groups and social units within a larger context. Microsociology also deals with how individuals within a society initiate and respond to various societal environments, interactions, etc. Everyday we as individuals interact with others on a daily basis and these interactions all differ based on the societal environment we are in. For example the way an individual acts in a classroom and with his friends are completely different interactions. Depending on the specific interaction we are involved in we perform in a certain manner we put on a "performance"
Goffman discusses two different types of performances that individuals "play" daily. These two performances are front stage performance and the backstage performance. These performances describe the roles individuals or actors play in a given situation and with whom they involve in these daily interactions. Front stage behavior is seen as the behavior we choose to show society in which is open for observation to be judged by those who observe our front stage behavior. Back stage behavior is where an individual performs certain things that people would find unacceptable. The back stage performance can be seen as a hidden personality that we choose not to show to the outside (society). The backstage behavior may be something that can be completely hidden or it may be a behavior/personality that individuals only show to those they feel close and comfortable with, people that will not judge their back stage behavior. For example the way I choose to act around friends and family is definitely not the way I would act around a professor.
Let's take the inner circle for example; it is a place for people to eat, chat with friends, and even do homework on down time. This is seen as the norm for this particular place, at certain times it can be really quiet and other times it can be really loud especially around lunch time. As actors we are all used to playing a certain role within a given context and bird calling is an example of stepping out of the norm of the inner circle. As a class we did a flash mob in which our task was to caw like a bird. We first cawed in long increments of 3-5 minutes but as the time passed we began to get a little louder and caw a little more. When first hearing about our experiment that we would be doing as a class I thought it was pretty funny and yet a little embarrassing at the same time. For me this was definitely stepping out my comfort zone I walk through the inner circle often and usually recognize a lot of people that use this space. I am in a sorority and many Greek organizations sit in the inner circle so I was nervous on what they would think which displays a good example of backstage behavior. Cawing like a bird is something I definitely wouldn't do on a daily basis. However as other classmates began to caw I stepped out of my comfort zone and began to join in with the others. It began to get a little less awkward for me because my sorority's "call" is a bird call so I am used to doing it at certain events. I have a sorority sister in this class as well so we did a call and response to each other which is our sorority call. Using my sorority's call for this experiment demonstrates a back stage behavior that was brought to the front stage behavior because it is something that I do but only in a certain context and with certain people (sorority sisters). Another fellow Greek sitting at the table next to me thought it was my sorority sister and I that randomly starting cawing and told us "See what you started" and began to laugh. While observing the looks on peoples faces some thought it was funny others just ignored it. I feel maybe people that ignored our cawing happened at the very beginning when our cawing was less frequent however as we began to caw more people began to look around some thought it was funny however others did not. I heard two different comments such as "grow up" or "how mature" the people that said this believed we were just a bunch of fools cawing in the inner circle to act like idiots however it was to get a reaction out of others. I feel for the most part this flash mob was a success there could have been some things that we could have done that improved our flash mob. Some of these things include having everyone participate in the bird call and another thing would be maybe choosing certain people to act like a bird and flap and caw on their way out of inner circle to get an even bigger reaction out of people. Other than that our flash mob seemed to be a success, whether we got rude comments, laughs from others, or people cawing back at us who were not apart of our class, this experiment was fun and definitely memorable.
Goffman discusses two different types of performances that individuals "play" daily. These two performances are front stage performance and the backstage performance. These performances describe the roles individuals or actors play in a given situation and with whom they involve in these daily interactions. Front stage behavior is seen as the behavior we choose to show society in which is open for observation to be judged by those who observe our front stage behavior. Back stage behavior is where an individual performs certain things that people would find unacceptable. The back stage performance can be seen as a hidden personality that we choose not to show to the outside (society). The backstage behavior may be something that can be completely hidden or it may be a behavior/personality that individuals only show to those they feel close and comfortable with, people that will not judge their back stage behavior. For example the way I choose to act around friends and family is definitely not the way I would act around a professor.
Let's take the inner circle for example; it is a place for people to eat, chat with friends, and even do homework on down time. This is seen as the norm for this particular place, at certain times it can be really quiet and other times it can be really loud especially around lunch time. As actors we are all used to playing a certain role within a given context and bird calling is an example of stepping out of the norm of the inner circle. As a class we did a flash mob in which our task was to caw like a bird. We first cawed in long increments of 3-5 minutes but as the time passed we began to get a little louder and caw a little more. When first hearing about our experiment that we would be doing as a class I thought it was pretty funny and yet a little embarrassing at the same time. For me this was definitely stepping out my comfort zone I walk through the inner circle often and usually recognize a lot of people that use this space. I am in a sorority and many Greek organizations sit in the inner circle so I was nervous on what they would think which displays a good example of backstage behavior. Cawing like a bird is something I definitely wouldn't do on a daily basis. However as other classmates began to caw I stepped out of my comfort zone and began to join in with the others. It began to get a little less awkward for me because my sorority's "call" is a bird call so I am used to doing it at certain events. I have a sorority sister in this class as well so we did a call and response to each other which is our sorority call. Using my sorority's call for this experiment demonstrates a back stage behavior that was brought to the front stage behavior because it is something that I do but only in a certain context and with certain people (sorority sisters). Another fellow Greek sitting at the table next to me thought it was my sorority sister and I that randomly starting cawing and told us "See what you started" and began to laugh. While observing the looks on peoples faces some thought it was funny others just ignored it. I feel maybe people that ignored our cawing happened at the very beginning when our cawing was less frequent however as we began to caw more people began to look around some thought it was funny however others did not. I heard two different comments such as "grow up" or "how mature" the people that said this believed we were just a bunch of fools cawing in the inner circle to act like idiots however it was to get a reaction out of others. I feel for the most part this flash mob was a success there could have been some things that we could have done that improved our flash mob. Some of these things include having everyone participate in the bird call and another thing would be maybe choosing certain people to act like a bird and flap and caw on their way out of inner circle to get an even bigger reaction out of people. Other than that our flash mob seemed to be a success, whether we got rude comments, laughs from others, or people cawing back at us who were not apart of our class, this experiment was fun and definitely memorable.