What is Footing?

Footing is the social act of adjusting the manner of speech, such as tone of voice, gestures, word choice, etc. to that which is relevant to the current listeners (Goffman, 1981).

We speak differently to a mother than to a child, and different to a child when her mother's present. And different to adults when children are present. We alter our vocabulary (I must alter mine considerably to avoid bad language when sitting next to a family, say at the bowling alley, when I want to yell one thing after a gutter ball, but I G-rate it instead). We change our tone. A parent may not scold her child the same way, at the same volume, in public with people listening than she would without that same audience.

People also do this in their online interactions. Think about how you alter what you write on your wall, versus what you write in a private message on Facebook. Or how have our posts on the ole' FB have changed since our parents joined and friended us.