Communication is vital for our very existence as it is through conversing and interactions we are able to absorb and creating meanings.
Meaning helps us to develop a better understanding about the people and things around us. Though it cannot be stressed enough how communication is a process that on folds in its relevant stages, sometimes we can put the horse before the carriage by making our own predicts of how we expect others will respond. Sometimes we skillfully craft our messages in ways to evoke a particular response we expect others to produce.
Symbolic Interactionism is a communication theory, which acknowledges how our expectations about people and things are linked to our discourse within society.
You don’t live in a bubble by yourself, and if the world is your bubble you share it with 6 billion people, if your country is your bubble you hare it hundreds and thousands of people. and if they bubble is your home you may share it with relatives and even if you live alone you just can’t avoid it, (I-n-t-e-r-a-c-t-i-o-n). You have to go to work, you have to make purchases and you live around (neighbours), interaction is unavoidable. not in total isolation from interfacing with others.
This unavoidable contact we need to make with others in society is important to being aware and keeping aware of the changes of meanings which take place in our society. but why is meaning so important to interaction? It is so because when we converse we need to understand and be understood and a universe of discourse, allows for this.
3 core premises of Social Interactionism
Meaning (|) Creates Social reality
Through meaning, people determine how they will treat other people or things. It is important to acknowledge that we all will not place the same level of importance on certain people or things, simply because they don’t mean the same things to us.
Language (|) Provides Meaning
“Language is the vehical for creating meaning,” it also shapes the quality of interactions.
Thinking (|) Modifies Meaning
Thinking is equivalent to an inner-conversation or dialogue conducted mentally. Symbols we come into contact with through interactions understood through our thought process of interpretation.
We do anticipate how we will react to people based on our expectations of them.
Some may react differently to a vagrant asking for money, versus a registered nursed asking for donations for a charity.
By communicating you are engaging in the process of generating meaning.
How social interactionism is exhibited in relation to reality?
Symbolic interaction most time accounts for how we view people. It also takes an open-mind for some to divert from the previous meanings they know and embrace an alternative one. When one thinks of someone an ex-convict, what typical expectations society holds them to? Some expect violence and aggression, deviant behaviour such as theft, reincarnation. These expectations may cause some to look upon them with caution and interact towards them to suit. However, this is a notable stigma which follows this highly frowned upon group as they attempt to reenter society.
We name people, things and behaviours and with Naming meaning is assigned.
There exist a social phenomena of verbally shaming ex-convicts, as it applies to Symbolic interaction, we have the ability to assigning meaning through, ‘Naming.’ We name people, their actions and the things they have. However, what we can take from this theory is, not to allow the naming of things and actions related to people, to cloud our judgements which causes us to assign stigmatized meanings, which we cannot get pass as it relates to them. This would create an undesirable social reality of language being used as a tool to confine meaning.
A true story in the link below related to, ‘Symbolic interaction’ where the ed-
Nation News Easy magazine feature on Sheena Lambert
vidence of meaning being attached to the person (Sheena) and her Past actions is seen. The attempt to confine her to the meanings associated to her past is there as well her rejection of the negative, ‘Self-fulfilling Prophecies’ expected by nah-sayers.
http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/210547/sheena-lambert-prayer-pulled
Theoretical Anaylsis
The Symbolic Interactionism theory, was conceptualized from an Interpretive approach, it looks at aspects of communication which shape social realties and are subjective such as interpersonal-interaction, language, symbolic meanings and the concept of self.
In this theory it is proven that truth is subjective because what means one thing for one person does not for the other. The theory doesn’t seek to prescribe one set outcome, assign one set meaning nor does it aim to do so.
‘Symbolic interaction’ is a theoretical perspective that fits the image of a lens. According to Griffin theories such as these, “shape our perception by focusing attention on some features of communication.” This is a theory that attracts the attention of a reader through its mentioning of relatable features such as meaning, Language, thinking which actually occurs in our everyday interactions. From how we anticipate how we will respond to others and how they will respond to us, which is the social reality we relate to. This relatable nature of this theory makes it a considerably good one by the criteria of having the ability to create ‘new understanding of people’
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