Erving Goffman Essay

Erving Goffman was a sociologist who originated the study of face-to-face interaction, which he made famous in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Goffman believed that the world was like a stage and related social interaction as a theatrical performance in order to stress the importance of human interaction. He argued that we develop an idea of the impression we want to make on others and we manage that impression through performances. In light of this we are given the opportunity to present ourselves so positively that people think better of us. Implying that during this process we separate ourselves from who we really are to suit the role we create for ourself. Goffman called this impression management; believing that we humans desire to guide and control how people see us and therefore making it our job to put on the best presentation of self that we can. …show more content…
This brings us to front-stage and back-stage regions, people are in their front stage region when they’re in the presence of at least one other person. Goffman claimed that we use impression management as a tool to make ourselves look more appealing to other people while we’re on the front stage. Reiterating that the only time individuals get rid of the identity they’ve created for themselves is in the backstage where no audience is present. We enter the backstage when we leave the front stage and are no longer in front of other people. Our backstage is where we practice how to be social in the front stage and where we can behave in a manner we’re comfortable with and no one is apart of; this is when our true character is exposed. The audience consists of other individuals who observe the role-playing and react to the