Self-Monitoring:Personal Behaviors
... me have different behaviors. First, the setting of the class is in a class room with about twenty other students. Mostly freshman make up the class, but there is a senior and a sophomore. I do not know most of the kids very well. This causes me to not be talkative and to have a lack of interest in the class itself, but with others too. I also noticed that I slouch and fidget throughout the hour an a half. I become more tired and less energetic as the class progresses. This causes me to be less interactive and allows others to view me in a way that isn’t quite who I am. It is frustrating when people think that I am lazy, a slacker, or bored because I try to give my whole attention to those that I am around. The Professor is very monotone and older. He structures the class into an arc and he lectures us. So, not much enthusiasm or zeal goes into class work or interactions with others. It took about a three classes to realize how my energy drops drastically, my ability or want to interact declines, and I realized how much of a struggle it is to send off a positive persona. I asked one of the students that sits next to me, to observe how I act in class, at the end of class he told me that I seemed exhausted and extremely fed up with the professor and the subject. I chose this student because before class and in Dillin, I usually talk to him and am very animated when communicating back and forth. In The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Goffman states, “when two teams present themselves to each other for purposes interaction, the members of each team tend to maintain the line that they are what they claim to be, they tend to stay in character” (Goffman 167). This statement is proven with the example that all the students in the class have this image that they give off. They all give off this bored look and a tired disposition. Their disposition affects me because I change the energy level and feeling that I am. From this I can conclude that every other student is doing the same thing that I am. In a more intimate setting like my dorm, I behave differently. Unfortunately, in the hall, I am in constant contact with people. Therefore communication is inevitable. This environment differs greatly from the first because the whole setting is different. In the hall, people are allowed to converse whenever they want to whomever they want. We do not have to stay on a specific subject. There are approximately ninety people that live here. Not go to class here, but live here. A living situation is much different then a formal class setting. Fortunately, I know everyone in my hall and am able to talk to them whenever I feel so, without being reserved. Everyone is so much more laid back and able to relax. I have observed how they are more open in the hall then they are in class. Even those that have the same class with me seem to behave with a friendlier persona then a quiet one, like in class. The way they behave reflects the way I behave. “A shill is someone who acts as...