The Awkward World of Breaching Experiments

 For this week’s blog I want to talk about Garfunkel’s breaching experiments. In society there are certain things that are almost universally agreed upon to be wrong such as genocide, rape and murder, with these acts and many others being outlawed and punished by law. However there are other things that society considers wrong although they are not officially illegal. Countless unwritten rules determine the right course of actions for particular situations and events, these social norms guide everyday interaction and behaviour.

Breaching experiments highlight how people take for granted unwritten social norms that are generally assumed by members of society. Proper breaches target a specific social norm such as social etiquette, table manners, and conventional roles. Funnily enough a couple of weeks ago I experienced a breaching experiment at Uni. I was going about my day as of normal and was talking to a friend when all of a sudden around 20 people start to scream at proceed to run full speed in a line weaving in and around other students all the way along the library. I gave a textbook reaction which included awkward laughter, bewilderment and general confusion. I also felt the need to label a reason as to why this display took place and attributed the scene to the latest task set out by the drama department, by doing this I was attempting to make sense of my social world, maintaining social order.

I thought I would also include a couple of funny examples of individuals breaching social norms and etiquette at fast food drive-throughs. About a year ago we were introduced to the idea of ‘Cone-ing’. After watching this video again I discovered that this maker has actually made a whole range of similar videos the two I have included are titled ‘Fruit-ing’ and ‘Goldfish-ing’. They are so funny, watching the reactions of the poor workers as they try to find normality and a reason behind why he is doing this is classic.

 Cone-ing

 

 'Fruit-ing'

 'Goldfish-ing'

Beauty Pageants, Stage Mums and the Construction of Self

I want to use this blog post to talk more about my data discussion presentation and the possible directions I may be going with. The clip I chose to focus on was from the reality TV program ‘Toddler’s and Tiara’s’ and the following clip is of a particular pageant mum Melissa. While watching this short clip keep in mind the various topics related to Dramaturgy. Another important to aspect to consider is that this program is highly edited and producer’s have chopped and changed certain sections to magnify any crazy mum vibes. But even when focusing on single clips without all the cross cuts, I believe there is some juicy information to work with.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2CTLsjslec

Within the framework of dramaturgy social life is viewed as a drama and a game. The theatrical metaphor is evident in this clip with Melissa presenting her and her daughter to the world performing specific roles. Melissa’s role is not only Carly’s mother but a successful pageant mother gives her a sense of personal identity. Another key element in this scene is that of performance, with the ways in which we act determined by the different settings and audience. Goffman also introduces the idea of front stage and back stage. Front stage is where the formal performance takes place and follows the conventions that have meaning to the audience.  The actor knows he or she is being watched and acts accordingly – Melissa acts like the happy, encouraging, supporting, calm  pageant mum as she is aware that the cameras are recording everything she says and does. E.g. 0.31 “Get started” fake smile for the cameras. Back stage is where performers are present but the audience is not, so the individual can step out of character. Things that are suppressed in the front stage may appear – When Carly is continually defying Melissa in front of the cameras she begins to feel embarrassed by her daughter’s actions.  She takes Carly aside and begins to whisper (thinking that the cameras can no longer hear her). Her backstage persona is reflected as she begins to whisper threats to Carly, her “true colours” in a sense are revealed.  ["the iPod will be gone" "you're going to be a sorry girl" "we're on television!"] she doesn’t want to reveal her private self to a public sphere. This action could be seen as Impression management which can be defined as the work on maintaining the right impression, defensive and protective techniques.

Here are a couple of links I found interesting on this topic:

 

Allen, M. 2011, ‘Living Vicariously through Children with a Twist’, A Matter of Personality

Cannold, L. 2011, ‘The ugly face of child beauty pageants.’ Sydney Morning Herald. 21 May 

Ralston, J . 2001, ‘The high cost of beauty’, Parenting, vol. 15 no. 9, pp. 132-140

The Presentation of Self through Facebook

Presentation of Self

After soaking in the lecture and readings on the Presentation of Self, I decided to delve into the social media that is Facebook and ways in which we construct and present ourselves to the social cyber world.  Digital access, online activity and noteworthy status updates are now influencing the degree to which someone is a (digital) “friend” or member of your “community”. Conventions of friendship and community are being transferred from real life interactions to digitally constructed actions on Facebook: apologies, break-ups, breaking off friendships, relationship / wedding announcements (the amount of times I have heard someone say “it’s not official till its facebook official” is ridiculous). Social networks are rewiring our relationships and our “keyboard communities” are affecting the attachments in our actual ones. I even found a website which gives you an array of different themed facebook statues for you to choose from for any occasion – advice, angry, boys, break-ups, cool, depression, drama, friendships, random, inspirational are just a few of the many, many different status categories this website provides allowing people to construct which kind of “self” they wish to project to the facebook world. Have a look if you like http://fstatuses.com/advice-facebook-statuses/ you might find a Facebook status that suits the kind of self you wish to project today. 

Also, here are a couple of articles that I found interesting:

Hilsen, A. (2012), ‘The construction of self in social medias, such as Facebook’, AI and Society, 27(1) 

Zhao, S. (2008), ‘Identity construction on Facebook: Digital empowerment in anchored relationships’, Computers in Human Behaviour, 24(1), pp. 1816-1836