Life - The Best Play Ever (Erving Goffmann)

« ● Nowadays, we observe more and more often that there is a lack of interpersonal communication, such as "face to face".

The more we emphasizes the development of modern technology, the more it seems that this type of communication appears to hinder , and more, this affects communication with the individual self.

By "individual and social imaginary" as Erving Goffman calls it in the book "Presentation of self in everyday life”, the real individual self (mine or yours) is partially replaced by someone else’s self, which the media is imposing to us, giving us models of everyday communication, such as actors, politicians, athletes and artists.

Referring to daily direct communication, Erving Goffman states that we tend to increasingly become "theatrical". The sociologist Erving Goffmann popularized the idea of life as a show, arguing with concrete research the fact that ordinary people, in everyday life, act in order to form the desired impressions upon the others around, like actors playing roles on stage in front of spectators.

In the chapter Management of impressions, Goffman argued that, during social interaction, there are several "meetings" (encounters), or episodes.

Cumulated, they make a show, which involves the actor (who transmit information), audience, settings, observers, or other co-participants, located outside the scene or in the backstage scene.

Actor transmit information through "signs" (words, gestures), with which help, they give that "expression" of their own self produces some "impressions" to the audience.

This expressive actor wants to influence impressions produced.

In this chapter, Goffman distinguishes two kinds of expressions of the actor : one offered (verbal) and one exhibited (nonverbal but intentionally induced to handle impresses produced on the audience). Throughout this chapter, we Goffman calls us, the people, "performers".

It shows three characteristics that team members need to have for their team to perform in conditions of safety. First, playwright loyalty , referring to the fact that performers should not divulge secrets of their team: " Astfel, membrii mai in varsta ai unei familii trebuie adesea sa evite prezenta unui copil la barfe sau marturisiri, din moment ce nimeni nu poate fi sigur cui va incredinta copilul aceste secrete.

Prin urmarea, abia cand va ajunge la varsta 2. »