Erving Goffman Social Life Analysis

"Social life" is the set of relationships and interactions which a society leads us to have with each other. The sociologist Ervin Goffman suggests in The presentation of self in everyday life that social life is a stage where social actors are performers. By considering social life as a never-ending play, Goffman implies that since the moment we are born, we are thrown onto a stage where we learn how to play our assigned roles from and for other people through everyday social interactions.
In order to acquire the necessary skills to perform as a functioning member of their society, human infants will internalize the specific norms and values of this society through the complex process of socialization. Therefore, Goffman believes that when

Thus, we use different mechanisms called sign vehicles to present ourselves to our audience, including social setting, appearance and manner of interacting. These vehicles will vary according to different situations and a different audience which will influence the performer to adopt a certain behaviour in order to respect and reflect the right norms and values. This presentation of the values of society can have a profound effect on the individual. Goffman argues that the individual ‘may privately maintain standards of behaviour which he does not personally believe in ... because of a lively belief that an unseen audience is present who will punish deviations from these standards’ (1956:87). The audience expects the performer or performers to behave in a certain way. If their performance does not meet the expectations, it can lead to a misrepresentation or a confusing and disconcerting situation, which may affect the social order. By considering that ‘our

He applies the idea of the team to demonstrate the work of a group of individuals who ‘co-operate’. Co-operation can illustrate itself as a consensus in manner and behavior or in the presumption of distincting roles for each entity, driven by the desired intent in performance. Goffman relates to the "shill," as an individual who is part of a team and who "provides a visible model for the audience of the kind of response the performers are seeking," raising cognitive and intellectual enthusiasm for the achievement of an (generally financial) aim, as an example of a "discrepant role" in the team (1956 :146). In every situation, the individual takes up a front that is perceived to reinforce the group's performance. The need of each individual to manage his or her front with the aim to elevate the team performance diminishes the possibility of discord or disagreement. While the unifying essential features of the team are generally hollower and less complete than the needs of the performance, the individual actor experiences an intense constraint to conform and adapt himself to the desired front in the presence of an audience, as nonconformity dismantles the reliability of the entire performance. As a result, animosity and arguments are carried out in the absence of an audience, where idealistic changes as well as performance changes might be made without the