Public face, private face - Essay Example

of the of the Concerned June 22, Topic Public Face, Private Face Alteration of faces to seek desirable goals and objectives is a ubiquitous human practice. This strategy is primarily resorted to, to accomplish the coveted instrumental goals that are the communication objectives that are aimed at making others behave in a manner that is desired and sought after (Adler & Proctor, 2009, p. 9). Though the idea of adopting a premeditated persona in interpersonal communication may seemingly sound to be very shrewd and to some extent insincere, the reality is that everybody does this and most of the times at a subconscious level, without give a serious thought, unless the individual is communicating in an environment that is of relatively recent origins like digital and electronic communication.

Not to say that the instrumental goals mentioned here are always not necessarily pecuniary, commercial or professional, but may be as simple and innocent as soliciting a sense of psychological well being by forging more fruitful social relations, or nourishing the individual or collective sense of identity, or perhaps to quench the universal social needs like companionship, recreation, and a sense of control, and yes, sometimes to seek more practical goals that may perhaps be labeled by the Romantics as worldly or base (Adler & Proctor, 2009).

In that context, yes I am not averse to maintain different faces for different social situations. I find it very convenient, practical and manageable and it is something that I consider to be an integral part of any effective and efficient adult life. Yet, after all that is said and done, I simply do not believe that my private self is any different from my public face. Frankly speaking, since ages, the concept of self has been designated to the realm of philosophy. Yet, sadly, all the philosophical meditations carried on till now have much obfuscated the concept of self, making it more vague and amorphous.

To me the idea of personal self is something that is too big to put in words, yet something that I am instinctively and effectively cognizant of. In a social context, self ought to be defined and determined by the desired communication competence requirements, aimed at soliciting the desired goals while keeping the relationships at a level that are acceptable to all (Adler & Proctor, 2009, p. 6). Actually, that stands to be the difference between sanity and mental illness. It is not that a mentally ill person does not have a self.

It is that one is not able to manage and present the selves that are apt to specific situations. So to me, self is plasma like, nebulous pool of personal skills, feelings, beliefs, values and abilities that could try its best and attempt to come out with a persona that is optimally effective and desirable in a particular situation, while being in consonance with my essential personal beliefs and values. To that extent, I do engage in impression management, without being inherently fake, insincere and averse to some fundamental values and beliefs.

For instance, in organizational and professional situations I engage in the type of impression management that could be labeled as ‘retaining a professional demeanor’. There is no denying the fact that most of the times professional environments are functional and goal oriented in nature and demand and require one to communicate and behave in a manner that facilitate and extend the agreed upon or envisaged organizational goals. So in organizational situations, I tend to be a bit impersonal, focused and very meticulous about how the others are interpreting my verbal and non verbal communication and the impact it is having upon them.

For me it is a type of self management that requires more attention and energy, and quiet contrary to how I mostly communicate at home or amongst close friends. Yet my professional self is as much a part of me as my domestic self. Another sphere of communication were I take much effort to engage in impression management is the computer mediated communication, especially while chatting with strangers. One major thing about computer mediated communication and especially about chatting is that it deprives one the access to body language of the person with whom one is communicating.

Moreover, if that person happens to be s stranger, you simply lack data about one’s gender, ethnicity, age, etc. So during online chatting with strangers I consciously avoid textual messages and expressions that are vague and politically incorrect or could be interpreted by someone as being indecent. For the sake of convenience, it would be alright to segregate self into presenting self and perceived self. Yet, to retain integrity, it is imperative to know that both of them originate from the same essential source.

Word Count: 800 (3 pages 50 words) References Adler, Ronald B & Proctor, Russell II. (2009). Looking Out, Looking In (13th Edition). New York: Wadsworth Publishers.