Symbolic Interaction Assignment

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This assignment definitely forced my outside of my comfort zone. I had made up my mind that I would do the alternative assignment. It was not until a classmate came to me in need of a partner that I decided to go forth with Do Nothing assignment. In order to get a better understanding of my feelings during the assignment I have to provide a little back story. I was bullied throughout middle school. Being bullied left me very insecure and I constantly worried about the way others view my – especially my peers. I was afraid that this assignment would force me to feel like the girl I was in 7th grade, being stared at and whispered about. I feared running into people I know, and them judging me and viewing me as weird. I also suffer from major …show more content…

Dictionaty.com defines symbolic interaction as “a theory that human interaction and communication is facilitated by words, gestures, and other symbols that have acquired conventionalized meanings.” Though I was not able to talk during the exercise I made perceptions and presumptions based on the way others responded to me – I applied meaning to the body language, looks, and even being ignored. Herbert Blumer stated, “The acting unit necessarily has to identify the things which it has to take into account – tasks, opportunities, obstacles, means, demands, discomforts, dangers, and the like; it has to assess them in some fashion and it has to make decisions on the basis of the assessment.” (338). Blumer explains the process of interpretation. He states that after an action takes place within a situation, the “acting unit” has to process the actions and then makes an assessment. During this activity, I was the acting unit and the situation was me standing there doing absolutely nothing. I assessed the responses of the individuals who walked by and created my own interpretations. Symbolic interaction does not always consist of talking or open communication, but can be as simple as the gestures shown towards you in a given

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