Week 4.1: Performing Ourselves: Reflections on Goffman’s The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life - NGUYEN KIM CHI (응웬김찌)
This week, I read Chapters V, VI, and the Conclusion (pp. 107–162) of Erving Goffman’s The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, and I also watched the short video summarizing its key ideas. I’ll admit it wasn’t the easiest read Goffman’s writing can be dense, and his examples are sometimes abstract but by the end, I found myself seeing the world differently. It felt like a lightbulb moment, where something I’d always felt but couldn’t name suddenly made sense.
Goffman’s central idea is that we are all actors, constantly performing for an audience. Every social interaction is like a scene in a play: we wear certain “masks,” use certain props, and follow expected scripts depending on the setting and who’s watching. In these final chapters, Goffman dives deeper into how teams, regions, and communication breakdowns shape our everyday performances.
Teams, Fronts, and the “Self” as a Collab
One of the most interesting things I took from Chapter V was the idea of teams groups of people who cooperate in performing a shared definition of reality. A waiter and chef in a restaurant, for example, perform together to present a smooth dining experience to customers. Even friends or couples can be seen as “performance teams” who manage impressions together. It reminded me of times when I’ve been with a friend and we instinctively “covered” for each other, finishing each other’s stories or helping one another save face. Goffman helps explain why that coordination feels so natural: we’re invested in a shared performance.
He also talks about the idea of a “front”, which is the set of tools we use to present ourselves to others clothes, gestures, tone, setting. I thought of my own morning routine: getting dressed for class, choosing what kind of tone to use in different situations (professor vs. roommate), even curating my social media feed. These are all part of my personal front. Goffman doesn’t suggest we’re being fake just that we’re managing the version of ourselves we show, and that’s not only normal, but necessary.
Backstage, Breakdown, and Recovery
Chapter VI really stuck with me because it focuses on what happens when things go wrong when the performance fails. Goffman describes what he calls “performance disruptions,” like when someone forgets their lines in a play, or when a social script breaks down in real life. I immediately thought of awkward social situations like when someone laughs at a serious moment, or when your phone goes off in a silent lecture hall. Goffman explains how these moments challenge the definition of the situation and how we all work quickly to repair it, often with humor or apologies.
One key takeaway for me was how much effort goes into maintaining the illusion of smoothness in everyday life. Goffman writes about “face-saving practices,” like ignoring a mistake to avoid embarrassment or helping others recover from social blunders. It’s something we do instinctively but rarely think about. Reading this made me more aware of how kind and collaborative we actually are in public—we all play along to make social life work.
Goffman in the 2020s: Still Relevant?
When I first picked up this book, I wondered: can a theory from the 1950s still help us understand life today, in an era of smartphones, social media, and digital identity? After reading these chapters, my answer is a big yes.
In fact, I’d argue Goffman’s ideas are more relevant now than ever. We are constantly managing impressions on Instagram, in Zoom classes, through text messages. The front stage/back stage distinction is blurred in digital life, but it still exists. Think about how people curate their “story” online, how influencers craft content to fit a personal brand, or how we all sometimes perform optimism or confidence in group chats, even when we’re feeling something else entirely.
Goffman gives us the language to understand this. He doesn’t criticize performance as inauthentic instead, he invites us to be curious about the roles we play, and why. I think that’s what makes The Presentation of Self such a powerful book for social science students today. It trains us to observe, to question, and to understand people not just as individuals, but as performers shaped by social settings, relationships, and expectations.
Final Thoughts
Reading Goffman wasn’t always easy, but it was worth it. I’ve started to notice the subtle rituals of everyday life: the way we shift tone in an elevator, the way we present ourselves differently with friends versus professors, the way a single mistake can be “smoothed over” by a shared laugh. Goffman helped me realize that these aren’t random they’re part of a collective social performance that keeps life moving.
I think this book should absolutely still be taught in the 2020s. Not just because it’s a classic, but because it gives us tools to make sense of a world full of performance from face-to-face interactions to TikToks. Whether we’re trying to “save face,” keep the show going, or rewrite our roles, Goffman reminds us that we’re all actors, and the stage is always set.
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