Call me weird or whatever you like but I don't swear! I hate it with a passion. I'm like a little child that would ideally like to cover my ears when I hear words of the like. I don't know why this is..? All I can put it down to is when I was a kid my dad hounded me for using words like "bum" (that was too rude to say) and "arse", but these days I don't know, I just don't do it still!
For this weeks post I commented on Josh's blog 'Exploring Profanities in Interactions'. He raises some very interesting points as to both the positive and negative effects of swearing in different contexts. He also has evidence of external research where he found an article which outlines the use of 2 particular profanities in the Australian trade work place.
Week 11 is here! Time for my Data Discussion Presentation!
View, Enjoy and Leave Comments as some Food for thought for me in preparation for my final project!
Research into self-presentation
online has in recent years focused around anonymous vs nonymous online
environments and the way in which this impacts self-presentation and identity
constructions. (Primarily) Being a digital media student this whole area really
interests me and I find the way in which we interact in these two different
environments to be quite interesting.
In a study by Zao, Grasmuck and
Martin they found that:
“People acted differently in such environments (anonymous) than they
did in other online settings (nonymous)” (2008)
Why would this be so? Think about
it… How do you construct your identity on Facebook? Would this differ to an
anonymous environment such as Chat Rooms, Online Forums or Online Games such as
MMOG’s (Massively Multiplayer Online Games etc). Would you find yourself
to be more likely to express your opinion, give feedback or engage in other
activities that in a nonymous environment would be unlikely to do? It’s an
interesting concept and really empathises the impact that anonymous and
nonymous environments have on an individual.
One particular form of anonymous online
communication ‘Chatroulette’ which rose to fame in 2010 allows users to video
chat with random strangers whilst remaining anonymous 100%.. Right? WRONG! Recently
a developer has launched a new website ‘Chatroulette Map’ in which utilises
your broadcast location and IP address and exploits your location on a Google
Map. Laters anonomity! Quite frankly I think I would prefer them to know my
name rather than location coordinates.. At least there’s a chance of there
being more than one Elise Boonstra in the world!
I will leave you with a question,
followed by one of my favourite youtube sensations Steve Kardynal who rose to
fame off Chatroulette (Yes his identity is now out there for everyone to
know!), its slightly off topic but too good to leave out!
What do you think about anonymous
vs nonymous online environments? Do you feel your identity and behaviours
differ from one to the other?
Zhao S, Grasmuck S & Martin,
J. 2008, ‘Identity construction on Facebook: Digital empowerment in anchored
relationships’, Computers in Human
Behavior, vol 24, issue 5, pp 1816-1836, accessed 22/09/2012, SciVerse
Database.
In everyday life we are guided by
a set of ‘social norms’ which establish the idea of social standards on how we
should engage and behave in social interactions. These unwritten rules guide
and influence our actions on a day to day basis. This week Wieder’s reading Telling the code, closely examined the
‘convict code’ and how it is utilised in half-way houses to rationalise
behaviour and activities in the half way house. Wieder discovered that
individuals that were in breach of the code were met with negative sanctions
which varied dependant on the severity of breach of the code and breaches could
result in abuse and violence.
Like in Wieder’s examination of
the ‘convict code’ everyday individuals such as you and I are exposed to a
similar code on a day to day basis are which ‘stipulates’ the right and wrong
actions of everyday life situations, which again can also result in consequences-
(no not that of those that are prevalent in the halfway houses!). Social norms
can vary depending on geographic location, socio-economic status and up-bringing
to name a few.
When I think of social norms I
also feel that they depend on who I am in the presence of…. At work I have a
professional expectation of myself and my fellow employees, if I meet someone
new, I am expected to introduce myself with a polite handshake. If I met
someone new out with my friends I would be a ‘total loser’ if I was to shake
their hand (and as my consequence-perhaps then avoided by my friends who don’t want
to lose their ‘cool’ façade). While yes its polite, the social norms that are
present vary and depending on the situations we face in life.
Sunstein, CR 2006, “Social Norms
and Social Roles”, Columbia
Law Review, vol 96, no 4, pp 903-968, accessed 14/09/2012, JSTOR Database.
I love reading other peoples
blogs. Not only do they provide a more simplified overview of the weeks topic
they (in some cases) refer to everyday situations which I can relate to and
reminisce on. One particular blog that caught my eye this week was that of Nicole
Michielin’s blog post “The Morality of Cognition”. (I also commented on her blog- See link)
‘The focus of this weeks’ reading
surrounded Garfinkel and the “morality of cognition”, whereby amidst
conversation there are unspoken mutual understandings referring to what we
actually mean as opposed to saying directly what we mean- which I experience on a day to day basis. What I liked about
Nicole’s blog was that it provided an overview of the weekly reading topic in a
way in which I’m sure many of us can relate to - a conversation between Mother
and Daughter whereby Nicole outlines the underlying meaning of the conversation
as well as the spoken dialogue.
Nicole gives reasoning for the
unspoken understandings between her mother and herself noting that due to their
relationship “they don’t have to explicitly state the meaning behind every
statements because they ‘just know’ what the other person means.” Like Nicole I
also have these conversations with my family members and friends whereby we don’t
need to directly state our intent, however they are conveyed through these
mutual understandings as outlined and examined by Garfinkel.
I also feel that this is conveyed not only through conversation but also through facial expressions- I often find myself raising my eyebrows whilst pulling a particular face at my mum with her understanding to be "Shut up- Dont talk about that", exampling the use of this mutual understanding through facial expressions.
Is there anyone who you have this
underlying mutual understanding in conversations with? Why do you feel that
they understand you in this manner in order to understand the underlying
meaning of your conversation?
Originally dramaturgical
sociology was derived from the greatest playwright in the English language:
William Shakespeare but the term was first adapted into sociology by Goffman.
Simply ‘dramaturgy’ can be defined as “A sociological perspective stemming from
symbolic interactionism” but for Goffman sociological dramaturgy is the “creation, maintenance,
and destruction of common understandings of reality by people working”.
When looking at Dramaturgy this week subject matter examined actual self,
performance of self, front stage, backstage and the audience.
After reading this week’s reading
and looking over the lecture slides and recording I was very confused and I
struggled to understand and get my head around the whole idea. Through the in
detail tutorial discussions and examples the concept soon began to sink in and
I was able to adapt my own everyday examples to the idea. What this idea did
for me was open up the assessment of my own everyday activities and how I
‘perform’ differently dependant on my surroundings, groups of friends and location
eg: my workplace.
What I have found interesting is
that we undoubtedly create a number of ‘personas’ or faces for ourselves
with the idea of impressing the specific audience and these are dependent on
our situations and ‘audience’- friends or family. I feel that for most of us we
are aware that our performance at work would vary from our performance with our
friends and again with our family and for me until now I have ‘performed’ in
this manner without realisation. I have since analysed the idea of dramaturgy
with friends and family and looked at the different ‘performances’ they have
amongst their audiences.
Do you feel that you vary your ‘performances’
depending on your audiences? Which performance do you deem as your true performance? Why do you feel that you do this?
In the first 5 weeks of my first
sociology subject boy have I learnt alot. I was so unaware of the ways in which
we conduct ourselves on a day to day basis and how this relates to and conforms
to ideas and research conducted by a variety of sociologists. I’m still taking
to this whole idea of sociology and getting my head around the whole thing
although I will do my best to decipher the ideas and topics.
One such sociologist whom I’d
never even heard of until now Goffman, poses some interesting ideas in the form
of written and unwritten rules which are commonly without realisation applied
to our daily lives- “Rules of Conduct”. (Well obviously applied without
realisation as I have not realised until now!). These ideas surround the idea
of deference and demenour, symmetrical and asymmetrical and obligations and
expectations just to name a few.
One particular idea that stood
out to me was the idea of Deference and demeanor. Whereby Goffman defines
deference as the way in which we interact and conduct ourselves in relation to
others and demeanor as being the way in which a person acts or ‘presents’ ones
self. Deference and demeanor are applied in almost every social setting – well
I cant think of one in which it doesn’t where we act in certain ways
(deference) because our demeanour ‘says’ we should act in that way. (Well
atleast that’s how I think it works- I could be wrong, Its going to take some
time to get used to this whole thing).
Whats your interpretation of
deference and demeanour? Do you act in certain ways because you feel you
should? I’m interested to hear your thoughts! J
