Impression Management, THE SEQUEL (Assignment 14)

When flipping through the text to decide which sociological concept had the biggest impact on me, I kept coming back to impression management. Then I re-read my October 14 blog post titled "Impression Management" and realized that I sounded like a total nut job. Who on earth would put so much effort into projecting a specific image? Well, pretty much everyone, I think. I've been looking for people managing their images, and I haven't had to look far.

The place that I've noticed it the most is customer service... Oh my goodness, customer service, the perfect example. There is no way that the girl behind the counter at Starbucks is really that excited to see me. She's even more excited when her manager is standing next to her, it seems. I get it, though. I worked at Old Navy for two years (worst job EVER, and I worked in corn fields for two summers). This might be a special kind of impression management: the required kind. When I was behind the counter, I didn't want to smile and make small talk; I wanted to smash my head against a wall repeatedly, but I talked and smiled like I meant it.

Impression management is alive and well in fashion around campus. The guy who walks through Bush Library like it's the catwalk comes to mind, but every jacket, shirt, hat, and pair of pants is projecting an image, some harder than others. My goal when I get ready for the day in the morning is to look natural, like I'm not trying too hard; but some days it takes me an hour to achieve this look (Yikes, I hate admitting that). But this type of projection is obviously not limited to clothing. I spent ten bucks on a wreath for my front door today so the yuppies in my neighborhood wouldn't think I was a scrooge.

This is the type of thing I'm up against around here. Honestly...

I know that some of my examples aren't strictly projection tools. It's definitely possible that the girl at Starbucks was, in fact, a really nice person who loves her job. And the people projecting with their clothing around campus are probably also using their clothing as a form of self expression. But noticing the impression management all over has made me have a better sense of humor about the things I do to project a mature, stylish, or even a "Christmas-y" image:  After all, everybody's doing it.