What is 'The self'

Personally I found Goffman's ideas on the presentation of self to be rather unusual. It is at times very interesting and at times very difficult to stay interested it.

The lecture material was on Erving Goffman (http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/goffmanbio.html). Although one of Goffman's works is titled "the Presentation of Self in Everyday Life", I personally found that the lecture focused more on Goffman's style of research and writing and consisted of a brief overview of some of his jobs and how he carried out his research more then it focused on the actual topic of presentation of self.

In my opinion Goffman's research styles and methods go directly against what we are being taught today at modern universities. He had no method (or at least didn't publish a method). This is the exact opposite to what students the world over are being taught about how to conduct research. They are being taught to control, record, obey and publish all aspects of their methodology for any research activity and yet Goffman got away without following the same restrictions. That said some of his research methods would not pass ethical standard in today's society.

Goffman's research related to the presentation of self  when defining oneself in a social role and how conflict can arise when differing social roles overlap. An example of this is how you act with friends and how you act with coworkers and the conflict that may arise when the two having to interact with the two groups simultaneously. This is further discussed in the reading for this week ("The nature and difference of demeanor" in "Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-to-Face Behaviour", Doubleday, 1967 ).

This concept of a single person playing differing social roles in different social situations is an ever increasing concept with the modern trend of social networking sites and other modern technologies. This allows others to see how we interact when we are not with them and provides a more general view of ourselves. This said what we post on these social networking sites and how we act is still a particular social role we choose to display. It is just a social role that is more viable to differing sections of society and thus either incorporates aspects of many different roles or allows people to see us in a role that we would not normally display to them.

Tales of Symphonia Quote: "[Sheena Talking To Zelos] "Oh yeah, I've forgotten that this guy's actually a part of high society too." This quote shows how people can play different roles in different social groups and how this gives people a different perception of them."

Bibliography

Goffman, Erving. 1967. “The Nature of Deference and Demeanor.” Pp. 47-96 in Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-to-Face Behaviour. New York: Pantheon Books.

Teuber's, A. (2010, 11 6). Erving Goffman. Retrieved 8 17, 2012, from Brandies University:       http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/goffmanbio.html