infobong.com

Yesterday, I showed my students Justin Hall's "Dark Night" video in class. We were discussing how homepages and blogs engage in self-presentation. I made an effort to explain Erving Goffman's notion of "front region" and "backstage," since the students had already pointed out how people put their best face forward on homepages, Friendster and the like. I used Justin's video as an example of perhaps presenting a little too much of the backstage.

The students paid attention through the whole video, and, after they realized it he was performing, but performing in earnest, they were a little shocked that he would share so much of his personal life - including medical conditions - online.

I think this was a pretty useful exercise, even if they didn't quite get Goffman. After class, one student came up to me and asked, "What does Goffman say about instant messenger?"
"Oh!" I said, "He died before people really started using the Internet. His work is from the 1950s."
The student gave me a look of disbelief. I guess I should have foregrounded that discussion a little better.