Social Interaction

Are human beings the way they are because of things they've experienced? Is it nurture or nature that matters and why are people the way they are? These questions will be answered in this essay. In reality, both nature and nurture affect how we act, think and feel. In order to be a human being and to survive, social interaction must occur. Social interaction can be defined as any relationship between two or more individuals. Socialisation is an important process to learn. Symbolic interaction is important because when we interact with other human beings, we arrive to conclusions about the social world. We construct a social reality. The people in our lives have massive influences over us. Everyone does not belong to the same religion, support the same political parties nor do they dress the same way. This is because everyone has interacted with multiple people and has gone through different experiences. Sociologists believe that the socialisation processes experienced were different and therefore, different ideas were constructed about what may be seen as “in”, right, wrong, acceptable or Christian. This explains how people find it difficult to get along with people with a different ethnicity, people who live in different parts of the world or country and people with different religious beliefs. According to George Herbert Mead, when we socialise as a member of society it is similar to learning how to play baseball. He goes on to say that it is only after we know what to expect from each player that we can play the game. For example, without knowing who the pitcher is going to throw the ball to, you might not run fast enough to get there and be safe. Just like we cannot go through life until we have a sense of how society works. We wouldn't know what to do until we have an idea of how others would react in certain situations. He also says that after we internalise the organised set of expectations other people have of us, we are fully socialised into society. Just like communication, socialisation is inevitable. Parents worry about the friends you make and what you do in your free time because they believe that after being around persons who aren't like them, you would end up no longer being like your parents. I now understand why they worry. Maybe I should be the one worrying about them since socialisation ceases to stop even after you've grown out of adolescence.