Erving Goffman introduced the idea that in everyday life we perform our assigned

According to Goffman, in everyday life we play our assigned roles just as if we were on the front stage, the place where we deliver our lines. These are the situations in which we try to manage people's impressions of us and use our roles to communicate the ideas that we want others to form about us, hence  impression management. The back stage represents those places that we can go to for privacy and where we can allow ourselves to relinquish our roles. Goffman also suggested that we use sign-vehicles – social setting, appearance (including props) and manner – to communicate information about ourselves.