The Presentation of Self in Social Media: Re-analysis of Front and Backstage Concepts

Abstract

Social media provides individuals with new social interaction scenes, different from the face-to-face interaction scenes that Erving Goffman's dramaturgy focuses on. This study focuses on the concept of front and backstage in dramaturgy and takes social media as the interactive situation to explore the adaptation and changes of these concepts in online interaction. This research had five findings. First, there is no longer a fixed and standard setting in the online interactive scenes of social media. Second, the personal front has inauthenticity. Third, the performance is free from the limitations of the performer's own body and region. Fourth, a new area of interaction has emerged -- the "online pseudo backstage". It is the area between the front and backstage, which refers to the intentional disclosure of part of a performer's backstage on a social media platform. Fifth, in online interactions, Internet technology provides a protective barrier for performers. However, that does not mean backstage is entirely safe in the era of big data. Based on the above findings, Internet technology strongly supports performers' idealized self-presentation and greatly improves performers' impression management ability. However, at the same time, people should use social convenience properly, beware of the excessive pursuit of network personalization, and pay attention to self-improvement. Finally, since this study has analyzed social media from a macro perspective, future studies can focus more on the commonalities and differences in self-presentation by users on different social media platforms.