Erving Goffman and You: Opening Sequence

So, the other night I was out with some friends and, you know, I hadn't seen them for a while,

but one of my friends just was constantly looking at her phone, like checking her status

update or something. We haven't seen each other for a while and we're trying to catch

up, so... Are you here for me or what's the deal? I don't get that.

I'm an Android person through and through, and I'm not afraid to say that I judge people

who have iPhones. Don't they want their freedom? I don't like my phone telling me what I can

and cannot do. I'm just not that kind of person.

Looking for roommates on Craigslist is a real drag. There are so many people out there and housing is in such high demand here in D.C.

We get so many emails, but you know we can't invite everyone to come look at the place,

so my roommates and I decided to go online and vet people on Facebook.

So, when I was working in the restaurant it was very important that the people don't stay

sitting and eating too long because we were - the salary was tip-based.

So I have two blogs that I use. One is the one that's more publicly available. The second

blog, however, I use to kind of...um...for an outlet that - so that other people don't

know about it necessarily.

When I'm on the Metro and the person next to me is having a really loud personal conversation, I just pretend not to listen. I can hear every

word, but I act like it's not happening. I wish that they would be more respectful of

the rest of us that have to listen to it.

Any of these situations sound familiar? They happen pretty often, which means we're likely to overlook them. There's always that kid

in class on Facebook, sometimes people break up with significant others over the phone

- happens all the time! What else is there to discuss? Actually, the stories you just

heard can be analyzed under the lens of sociology. Sociology, as its name suggests, is the study

of society. Some sociologists are more interested in society on a larger scale. Think big numbers,

population, immigration, cities. That's macrosociology. Others are more interested in social activity

on a small scale. This is microsociology. Microsociology is concerned with individuals

and everyday interactions such as the ones you heard at the beginning of this video.

One of the most famous contributors to microsociological theory is Erving Goffman. Goffman specialized

in a concept that could be categorized under a school of thought called symbolic interactionism.

Goffman's perspective is called dramaturgy. Dramaturgy uses metaphorical terminology from

theater to describe what happens when two or more people interact with each other. Therefore,

you might hear words such as "front stage", "backstage", "performer", and "breaking character"

when Goffman's works are discussed. Before we get into specifics, let's break down Goffman's

argument. Dramaturgy is more complicated than just saying

"all the world's a stage". Goffman believed that humans are information seekers. He made

the assumption that when two people come into contact with each other, they're looking for

signals that will give information about the person they're interacting with, but she or

he is also concerned with the signals within her or his own performance. There are many

different factors involved in any given performance we may be enacting. This includes setting,

clothes, time of day, how many people are around, and who these people are. So our two