I found a reading that references Goffman’s ceremonial
behaviour, something that was also discussed in our readings (for those of you
whom haven’t read it...yet)! In reading the article, “Librarian’s experiences
of the teaching role: Grounded in Campus“ (Julien & Pecoskie, 2009), I
stumbled across a piercing statement from one of the librarians, “She even sent
me a thank you card afterwards!... they may be thankful but they [usually]
don’t bother,” Martin said (p.152).
People day by day go about their business and when they do
something to help another person out, regardless of whether they had to or not,
our society within these particular relationships with others we look for
acknowledgement or praise for doing nice things.
Maybe relevant or not but before, a basket of biscuits
dropped to your door step was a perfectly normal form of gift giving and form
of a thank you gesture. These days... that [usually] never happens. Why have we
steered so far away from traditional acts and become more rehearsed in
communications of awareness?
“As long as they acknowledge it,
it makes it all alright?”
When
I first came to Australia, I did not really understand why there was so much
fuss about Australia becoming more and more like America. I suppose in this
case, from experience, I know that in American traditional gestures and the
reasoning for not doing more of them would simply be put as… “Because there is
no time, I am just always so busy.” I’m interested to see if Australians too,
would respond the same way! If so, what does this mean?
Julien, H. & Pecoskie J.L. 2009,
"Librarians' experiences of the teaching role: Grounded in campus relationships",
Library; Information Science Research, Volume 31, Issue 3, pp149-154, ISSN 0740-8188, 10.1016/j.lisr.2009.03.005.
Goffman, E 1967, "The nature of deference and demeanor", in Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-to-Face Behaviour, Doubleday, Garden City, NY, pp47-95.
Goffman, E 1967, "The nature of deference and demeanor", in Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-to-Face Behaviour, Doubleday, Garden City, NY, pp47-95.
I totally agree with you when you say that people “… look for acknowledgement or praise for doing nice things..”. What happened to the days when people did nice things just for the sake of it? It seems as though today, no one wants to go out of their way to help others unless something is in it for them and this has become such a common selfishness that most of us would now find a nice deed shocking when it would have probably been considered (mostly) normal years ago.
ReplyDeleteI think you found a really good way of relating this to the concept of dramaturgy, however I would like to offer some further insight. I feel as though peoples actions have become more focused on the frontstage parts of life rather than the backstage. In this, people show society what they want which then relates to presentation of self. From referencing the reading when the librarian said that “they may be thankful but they [usually] don’t bother” (Martin p.152), she is saying that they usually show her that they are thankful but never make the effort on the backstage to reinforce their thanks.
The picture posted on my page with this link is cut from a quote a friend put up on her Facebook page on Wednesday (it wouldnt load into the comment box) and I think that it relates well to what we are discussing. I have even had something similar happen to me last night when I left an esky in the cab that took me home and woke up the next morning to find it sitting on my doorstep when I was sure that he would have just pocketed it. I think that maybe the days of dropping off biscuits at someone’s door might be making a comeback and hopefully sometime soon people might start putting in some backstage effort and adjust back to how it should be and not feel like they are in an experiment when someone does something nice for them!