Social Interaction

 Social interaction is the process of reciprocal (two-way) influence exercised by individuals over one another during social encounters.

•  A social interaction is an exchange between two or more individuals and is a building block of society. Social interaction can be studied between groups of two (dyads), three (triads) or larger social groups.
•  By interacting with one another, people design rules, institutions and systems within which they seek to live. Symbols are used to communicate the expectations of a given society to those new to it. 
• The empirical study of social interaction is one of the subjects of microsociology. Methods include symbolic interactionism and ethnomethodology as well as later academic sub-divisions and studies such as psychosocial studies, conversational analysis and human-computer interaction. 
• With symbolic interactionism, reality is seen as social, developed interaction with others. Ethnomethodology questions how people’s interactions can create the illusion of a shared social order despite not understanding each other fully and having differing perspectives.

Usually social interaction refers to face-to-face encounters in which people are physically present with one another for a specific duration. However, in contemporary society we can also think of social encounters that are technologically existing like texting, skyping, or messaging.

In terms of the different levels of analysis in sociology–micro, meso, macro, and global–social interaction is generally approached at the micro-level where the structures and social scripts, the preestablished patterns of behavior that people are expected to follow in specific social situations, that govern the relationship between particular individuals can be examined. However, as the sociological study of emotions indicates, the micro-level processes of everyday life are also impacted by macrolevel phenomena such as gender inequality and historical transformations.

Examples: 

•  Giggling of an infant upon eye contact with an elder making funny faces or producing funny sounds
• Interaction of deaf and mute persons through sign language
• Interaction of two persons through video calling

Compiled: Miss Zarnish Hussain