Online Interactions in Every Day Life: Limitations and Possibilities of E. Goffmann's Microstudies

Abstract

The article analyzes the possibility of applying E. Goffman's microsociological frame analysis to everyday online interaction and the difficulties associated with this application. The article criticizes empirically unjustified and methodologically unproductive guiding distinctions: real/virtual and authentic/medial. Online interactions and digital technologies do not create a virtual reality separate from everyday life, do not make communication more mediated or less authentic, but are embedded in the existing everyday reality and provide alternative tools for impression management, impose specific technical constraints and provide specific opportunities. The rich tools of E. Hoffman's frame analysis can be effectively applied to the study of online interaction, provided that two assumptions are reconsidered: the special status of face-to-face interaction and blindness to things. In place of these positions, we propose a symmetrical description of face-to-face and online interaction, as well as an increased attention to the logic of technical and interface couplings of digital media. We conclude that revisiting these provisions will not destroy the conceptual core of E. Goffman's theory, but rather will allow us to apply frame analysis to the study of online interaction rituals. The microsociology of everyday life can complement the theoretical constructs of the Science and technology studies and Actor-network theory, which leave everyday interactions, the grammar of the interaction order, and the “Lebenswelt” on the periphery of research.