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Social interaction is nearly impossible in everyday life unless a person opts to live alone as John Done has

said that “no one is an is Island”. A person is normally bound to come across other human beings
everyday several times. Social interaction is basically how a person act with other people and how other
people act with a that person and how does he react to that. Socialization is also a very good teacher on
how to interact with people it is not just that social interaction leads to socialization. It teaches us how to
interact with other people lets take an example of a child he learns to interact and learn to act in various
situations through socialization. It is our socialization which teaches us how far to stand from someone
while talking to them or how to talk to a cashier in a supermarket. One of the most important things we
learn from socialization is our society’s roles. We act according to the roles we have in the society. These
roles are the core of social structure and ultimately social interaction. These roles become a part of the
personality and sometimes are assigned by birth. A child born in a rich family is going to act accordingly.
Looking at the daily life interactions of a police officer he takes up the role of a police officer and
interacts with people accordingly. All interactions don’t have to be verbal, expressions and body language
can also be interaction.

Social interaction has a lot to do with roles of every person in society. If the roles are not preassigned
interaction will be tough and slower because the role has yet to be decided. People tend to stay in the role
for example your gardener starts asking about your personal life he will be out of his role. His questions
will sound absurd. These roles maintain the social order let’s say if two students start behaving disorderly
in the class by kissing each other the order of the class will be disturbed. This shows that if students start
behaving outside their roles with this simple act, so the roles are really very important.

The roles that people follow ultimately shape the personalities for example if a law professor who
regularly criticizes the harshness of police towards the suspects joins the police force. In that job he will
understand the other side of story in the role of the police officer. In that role he will have to deal with no
co-operative suspects and he himself will be a harsh police officer this hypothetical example is a good
argument that role in the society do shape the personality of the person.

Roles can take an ugly turn when a person has been doing two different roles and can’t perform both at
the same time. Like for example a single mother who is a student as well is performing two roles at a
time. She will have to choose one from them.

The importance of specific roles in the society for social interactions can be understood in the
dramaturgical approach which is derived from Shakespeare’s (As You Like IT, Act 2, Scene 7). He
basically makes a point that all the world is a stage every human being is an actor. Everyone comes
performs and leaves and everyone can have various roles. This perspective shows that the culture that is
dominant in the society is like a script where roles remain the same actors keep changing. Dramaturgical
approach is in the support of the view that culture assigns the roles which people play to socially interact
with each other in their everyday life. Presentation of self-guides social interaction. It is similar to the
mindset of the actor who wants to act exactly how the writer of the script/ play had in mind. People try to
play their role in society exactly in line with the society because here it is the writer of script. The
interaction which happen in front of people can said to be the front stage performance on the other hand
what goes on in the head is can be said to the backstage. Everyday social interaction is based on the roles
people play.

The portrayal of the image in interaction is often managed. There are people in the society who manage
impression to a great extent lets take film industry as an example where all the members manage an

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impression of themselves in every day social interaction. This to fit into that particular society for
example directors have a stereo typical impression they make on other people. We can say that the
directors portray themselves like that to give the impression that they are playing their role according to
the script provided by the particular society.

Emotions also play an important role in everyday social interaction. Social interactions of a person are
often emotionally motivated. If a person hates another, he will interact with him in a different manner, on
the other hand if he loves someone, he will act totally different.

In conclusion everyday social interaction is how a person acts in the society and how he reacts to how
people act with him. People have specific roles which they abide by during the social interactions. These
roles can said to be from a script if spoken in the terminology of dramaturgical approach. This script is in
fact the norms of the society which everyone follows and perform their roles accordingly. The
equilibrium of the society is easily broken if someone starts acting outside their role, as example given
before. If these roles were not preassigned social interaction in everyday life would be difficult because
no one would know how to act with others, and this might lead to a chaos. Socialization teaches us how to
interact with everyone for example as a child we go to school we observe and learn from the socialization
we do. We learn how to behave in an elevator only after we have been in there once. Roles are important
in everyday social interaction.

(Plagiarism 7%)

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