Erving Goffman- The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

Goffman proposes the idea that we change our behaviour in different situations in order to achieve our goals/ aims.

Goffman distinguishes between:

Front Stage Behaviour- How we act in public to different groups of people in different scenarios, for example, whilst at work we would create a 'front' which conveys a positive and professional image which differs from a laidback, calm image.

Back Stage Behaviour- How we act in private, where we are comfortable with ourselves and the people we are around. For example, at home with a close family member or friend. 

Examples of Front stage and Back stage behaviour can be applied to our behaviour on social networking. Whilst using sites such as Facebook, we can typically use our back stage behaviour online, which although may be more authentic, can also lead to issues with bullying and discomfort due to not conforming with mainstream behaviour. However, when updating a profile picture, we may use front stage behaviour as we conform to a typical front stage, where we upload a picture of ourselves.