I agree with Erving Goffman when he said that we hold our true selves back when interacting with

others, but to a certain degree. Ill agree with what he says about people not being their true selves but I will have to question if a person has a true self to being with. I will first talk a bit about how people are not their true selves and then try to poke around if a true self really exists or not. Most people censor themselves and follow social norms to make sure they are not perceived as crass, vulgar, or perverted. Social norms are rules and standards that are understood by members of a group, and that guide and/or constrain social behavior without the force of laws (Gilbert, Fiske, Lindzey). Following the social norms makes interacting with people of the same group easier and fosters commonality. While conforming to social norms makes general interaction easier, it also can be viewed as making it uneventful. Some people act out because they desire not to be seen as sheep in society and not simply following the social norms. I think these people are the ones that take Shakespeares All the Worlds a stage a little more literally than the rest of people. Even though the people that act out are not following the social norms, they are most likely still not being themselves. It is commonly portrayed in media that those that act out the most desire attention because they are not receiving the attention they need in their personal or back stage life. While the people that act out may be viewed as being themselves, I still find it hard to believe that this publicly portrayed self is their true self. These people we are meeting in the world are likely very much different when they are at home alone. Goffmans quote seems to lead us to believe that we have one true self that we hide from everyone else when we interact with them. I find this to be perplexing and even a little misleading. As with many concepts that we humans have developed in the course of trying to make sense of the world, we fall into the trap of thinking that there is one thing that represents the true self (Reiner). There are many ways to try and define what ones true self is. Some more common ways to define a self is by ones actions or by simply defining ones self by what one thinks they are (you are what you believe you are). Another way to view ones self is a continuous work in progress, so there is no true self because every moment there is a new self. It is a very complicated issue because people are so dynamic. There is no way to actually determine your true self. And if there was, it would likely be linked to the front stage selves the true self has created thus making the front stage selves reflections of the true self anyway. So it could even be possible that there is only true self and nothing fake. I digress. I would also have to agree with Goffman when he said that people disclose more about themselves over the internet, through text messages, or other forms of written communication. I personally have a lot of experience with talking to people over the Internet and text messages. People would talk to me about personal things in great detail even though they did not know who I was. People that did know who I was were also more open about their lives than they would otherwise have been in person. I also find that many people from my generation and younger think its easier to talk about stressful things through text rather than in person. I can understand this because emotions can fluster people and make them say things they do not intend; but when writing ones thoughts, one has more time to gather ones self. I notice that people communicating via technology usually share more about themselves, but that does not necessarily mean they are being themselves. Talking to people over the internet or a ny type of written communication is a vastly different exchange than when speaking to someone in person. Often, people that get along online do not find themselves compatible when speaking in person. So I dont think that hiding your true self is exclusive from oversharing. Dawning a front stage self is in many ways much easier to do when not face -to-face with someone, although for some reason many people dont bother with it since partial/full anonymity is often enough of a barrier anyway. I would say that it is easier to overshare in writing than it is face-to-face. There are no non-verbal cues that will make a person feel like they are being judged and no retorts that they will have to validate with a response since it is so easy to ignore a text, instant message, or email. It certainly seems funny how much people voluntarily divulge about their selves on the internet these days. Most people that say things about themselves on the internet dont think about how it can impact other people they know or their families. Family privacy, the ability of families to keep their everyday activities confidential and to be protected from outside interference (Newman), seems to be slowly fading away because of this and many other factors. It is easy to friend someone on a social networking site these days and then have access to who they are in a relationship with and other members of their family. Why do people choose to share such personal, incriminating, or even embarrassing information so freely? Psychologis ts and

sociologists disagree on the reasons for our society's lack of inhibition. Some say that we feel better about ourselves than we ever have before. Others blame loneliness and the growing lack of traditional community for the need to air our dirty laundry like we're in a confessional booth. What most experts agree on is that people share potentially embarrassing information online for one reason -- to get attention (Vogt). Some people even admit that sharing embarrassing information about themselves is a form of empowerment as it takes away the ability of others to embarrass them or shame them since they essentially beat them to the punch. The line between public/private and work/family is becoming blurred more every day (Agger). Gilbert, D., Fiske, S., Lindzey, G. (1998). The Handbook of Social Psychology Volume 2 4th Edition. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=w27pSuHLnLYC&oi=fnd&pg=PA151&dq=benefit s+of+social+norms&ots=gJMdyUDOJJ&sig=qS0TWuZhow9g1gN8WRL3j7_hwo#v=onepage&q=benefits%20of%20social%20norms&f=false Reiner. P. (2006). The True Self? Its All In Your Head. Retrieved from http://neuroethicscanada.wordpress.com/2011/06/06/the-true-self-its-all-in-your-head/ Newman, D. (2009). Families: A Sociological Perspective. Avenue of the Americas: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Vogt, V. (2009). Why Do People Share Embarrassing Information Online? HowStuffWorks.com. Retrieved from http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/social-networking/information/share- information-online.htm Agger, B. 2012. Oversharing: Presentations of Self in the Internet Age. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.