Gopnik on the Internet: A Virtual Game from the Perspective of Erving Goffman’s Social Drama

Abstract. In 2006–2008 the image of gopnik (uneducated member of youth street gangs) suddenly became very popular in Russian segment of the Internet. At that time mythological image of gopnik was created and Internet users began to play as gopniks in specially made virtual communities. The author analyzes these processes according to the theory of Erving Goffman. Virtual “gopnik game” can be described with the Goffman’s categories (but adjusted for conditions of the Internet). Using opportunities of the Internet, performers do not need to leave the background; they create their own masks in foreground and produce “impression management”. A game scenario is a set of rules, according to which canonical “gopnik” image is created; scenario provides scenic equipment and stage props, with which performers create their image: the declared conditions of clothing, kinesics, subject number, manners. The article also discusses the motivation of participants of “gopnik game”: these can be social, psychotherapeutic, empathic, hedonistic factors. According to Goffman this motivation is dependent on the “preliminary socialization” of a performer.

Keywords: role game, virtual personality, mask, Internet, youth street gangs, Erving Goffman, social drama.