The truth and presentation online: What’s next?

I took my  first sociology course my freshman year,  and I was pretty sure that  sociological theories were ideas people just dreamed up. However, once I became invested in the subject matter, I realized that theories didn’t depend on smoke and mirrors, but on experiences, observations and critical thinking. Some sociologists, the ones I relate the most with, study micro topics and the interactions that ultimately have a huge impact on daily life.

Enter: our beloved online world.

Theories in relation to online communication have developed in droves in the past 10 years. Some have to do with interaction, others with the concept of community. However, because I plan to have my career involve public relations, one of the things about the online world that I’m most interested in is the power of presentation.

One theorist  I love is Erving Goffman, a former U.C. Berkeley professor who uses something called “dramaturgical analysis” to describe how people act around others in order to gain approval or play a certain part.  While Goffman isn’t a recent theorist, or one who directly addresses online presentation, many today believe his theories are incredibly valuable in a new age.

Presentation of any “object,” whether it is the self, a product, business or band requires purposeful thought and rational. In the physical world, it is more difficult to make up a persona or physique, which is so easy to do online. Also in the physcial world, one forms connections and networks that check credibility and transparency, but online it is still “iffy” about how to go about this. Sure, we try and sometimes very well. But my concern is, how will I make certain a business I work for is fairly represented online?

Web sites such as this one use the Web as a place for satire. While this is creative, it is also incredibly misleading and looks exactly like the real site. Some people are being proactive in regard to the future generations, creating groups that advocate for presentation of the truth online.

The future and the truth? It is hard to say, but it’s safe to assume that there will always be those who are straight-forward and those who take advantage of the situation. In terms of the PR industry, maintaining credibility and transparency requires 24/7 monitoring!