The Representation of Self in Everyday Life

The Representation of Self in Everyday Life

“The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life “

According to Erving Goffman, when a person enters the presence of others he may wish that they think highly of him, or that he thinks highly of them. Or he we will perceive how in fact he feels toward them. As well, he can obtain no clear-cut impression. When a person meets another person, they are interested in getting information about that other person. This is because they like to see what interests them and what they have in common. The things that they have that are alike help them to be interested. Interest is a reason to mobilize his activity so that it will convey an impression to others. It is in his interests to convey an impression.
The two kinds of sign activity involved in the expressiveness of the individual are the expression that he gives, and the expression that he gives off.  The first involves verbal signs or their replacements which he uses to convey the information that he and the others are known to attach to these symbols. The second involves a wide range of action that others can treat as suggestive of the actor, the expectation being that the action was performed for reasons other than the information conveyed in this way. An individual can control the conduct of others by giving off false impressions and making them seem valid. If a person were to make people feel bad for him they would always feel bad for him, unless they knew otherwise. If this person puts on little acts or plays to make people like him he probably will catch the eyes of certain people but maybe not the eyes of many other individuals.
The symmetry of the communication process is that people may fully never understand how one perceives something. They can see it as a true piece of information or a false statement. It is like a game in which it can be a sequence of discovery or false revelation and re-discovery. Communication is divided in lines of either understanding an individual or not even trying to comprehend...

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