Dramaturgical Approach To Social Media

Trends are constantly changing within social media as it is the fastest way for news to spread. With a huge increase in social media usage, people want to look their best on these websites. When doing so, Goffman’s proposed theory of a dramaturgical approach becomes relevant, as he believed that people perform for an audience (Dillon, 2015). As this theory is meant to explain social life, it is quite applicable to social media. This is especially true for posting on social media, as people often spend a great deal of time composing and ‘perfecting’ a single post. In this theory, Goffman believed that “social life, the presentation of self in everyday life, is the performance by social actors of different roles, parts, and routines on various

On social media, this is when an individual posts something for others to see, whether that be a picture or some kind of message. Individuals are aware that they are being watched in this stage, so they are likely to act in a way that portrays a specific image of themselves. In addition, back-stage is where the performer goes to relax after their front-stage performance (Dillon, 2015). Performers are more free to express themselves as they please in the back-stage. Though performing still occurs in the back-stage, the audience is much different than that of front-stage performing. On social media, this would be how individuals interact with their friends in a private way. They are free to express whatever values they deem important, even if these are not values they are comfortable sharing during their front-stage performance, such as religious or political interests. The performer is still putting on an act, but the audience is more accept and forgiving than in front-stage performing (Dillon, 2015). Because of this receptive audience in the back-stage, performers are not as anxious and can open up

With social media, we often expand our audience from just our friends to people we know, or sometimes even to people we do not know. This creates a large gap between the front-stage and back-stage audiences, creating the perception of larger back-stage audiences which may get people in trouble, as they may share private information with too many people. Finally, Goffman’s notion of impression management ties both the front-stage and back-stage together, as it encompasses how individuals prepare for their performance. According to Dillon (2015), impression management can be defined as “symbolic work that we strategically do to orchestrate a good performance in our various roles” (p. 288). Props may be used to portray a specific image that the performer is going for or to lead the audience to believe something about the performer. The use of impression management is commonly found in social media, specifically on websites where pictures are posted, such as Instagram. It is common practice for individuals to show off in pictures that they post to gain ‘likes.’ Items such as expensive-looking watches or brand name clothing are commons props that are used to gain popularity on social