Dramaturgy and the Social Media: Decoding the Virtual Self

Abstract

Social Media has entered our lives to an extent where it seems impossible to live without our smart phones. The virtual lives of the users though are just a fractional part of their real lives. People sometimes even fake it to construct a different virtual identity for themselves. In contemporary times the social media behaviour can be studied in terms of Goffman’s theory
of dramaturgy. This paper looks at the sharing of real socio economic status patterns of 500 respondents on social media along with their dependence on social media for real life decision making.. The study follows a mixed method approach where a survey along with expert interviews is conducted. Results indicate that people subconsciously use dramaturgy while sharing the real life socio economic status online and seek approval of social media peer to an extent to make real life decisions.