Dramaturgy and the Social Media: Decoding the Virtual Self

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.

Keywords

Social media Dramaturgy Virtual identity Socio economic status

References

1. Asur, S., & Huberman, B. A. (2010, August). Predicting the future with social media. In 2010 IEEE/WIC/ACM international conference on web intelligence and intelligent agent technology (Vol. 1, pp. 492-499). IEEE.
2. Boyd, D. (2015). Social media: A phenomenon to be analyzed. Social Media+ Society, 1(1), 2056305115580148.
3. Boyd, D. M., & Ellison, N. B. (2007). Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of computer-mediated Communication, 13(1), 210-230.
4. Goffman, E. (1978). The presentation of self in everyday life (p. 56). London: Harmondsworth.
5. Gündüz, U. (2017). The effect of social media on identity construction. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 8(5), 85-85.
6. Goffman, E. (1964). Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall
7. Hart, J., Ridley, C., Taher, F., Sas, C., & Dix, A. (2008, October). Exploring the facebook experience: a new approach to usability. In Proceedings of the 5th Nordic conference on Human-computer interaction: building bridges (pp. 471-474).
8. Miller, H. (1995, June). The presentation of self in electronic life: Goffman on the Internet. In Embodied knowledge and virtual space conference (Vol. 9).
9. Sannicolas, N. (1997). Erving Goffman, dramaturgy, and on-line relationships. Cibersociology. Site.
10. Salimkhan, G., Manago, A. M., & Greenfield, P. M. (2010). The construction of the virtual self on My Space. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 4(1).
11. Yoon, G., & Vargas, P. T. (2014). Know thy avatar: The unintended effect of virtual self representation on behavior. Psychological science, 25(4), 1043-1045.

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How to Cite

Chitra Tanwar, Dr. Amit . (2020). Dramaturgy and the Social Media: Decoding the Virtual Self. International Journal of Communication Development , 10(4), 32-42.

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IJC

International Journal of Communication Development

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ISSN 2231-2498

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[1] 1. Asur, S., & Huberman, B. A. (2010, August). Predicting the future with social media. In 2010 IEEE/WIC/ACM international conference on web intelligence and intelligent agent technology (Vol. 1, pp. 492-499). IEEE.

[2] 2. Boyd, D. (2015). Social media: A phenomenon to be analyzed. Social Media+ Society, 1(1), 2056305115580148.

[3] 3. Boyd, D. M., & Ellison, N. B. (2007). Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of computer-mediated Communication, 13(1), 210-230.

[4] 4. Goffman, E. (1978). The presentation of self in everyday life (p. 56). London: Harmondsworth.

[5] 5. Gündüz, U. (2017). The effect of social media on identity construction. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 8(5), 85-85.

[6] 6. Goffman, E. (1964). Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall

[7] 7. Hart, J., Ridley, C., Taher, F., Sas, C., & Dix, A. (2008, October). Exploring the facebook experience: a new approach to usability. In Proceedings of the 5th Nordic conference on Human-computer interaction: building bridges (pp. 471-474).

[8] 8. Miller, H. (1995, June). The presentation of self in electronic life: Goffman on the Internet. In Embodied knowledge and virtual space conference (Vol. 9).

[9] 9. Sannicolas, N. (1997). Erving Goffman, dramaturgy, and on-line relationships. Cibersociology. Site.

[10] 10. Salimkhan, G., Manago, A. M., & Greenfield, P. M. (2010). The construction of the virtual self on My Space. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 4(1).

[11] 11. Yoon, G., & Vargas, P. T. (2014). Know thy avatar: The unintended effect of virtual self representation on behavior. Psychological science, 25(4), 1043-1045.