LECTURE: “Social Interaction in Everyday Life” in, The Reality of Everyday Life: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge, Berger and Luckmann, 1966/ 1991
KEYWORDS: Peter Ludwing Berger, Reality of Everyday Life, Shared Common Sense Reality, Social Construction of Reality, Social Interaction in Everyday Life, Sociology of Knowledge, Thomas Luckmann
University of Delhi
Bachelor of Arts
Sociological Thinkers
READING TO BE COVERED: Berger, P. L. and T. Luckmann, 1966/ 1991, The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge, London: Penguin Books. Chapter 2, Social Interaction in Everyday Life, pp. 43-48
Important Points to be Kept in Mind While Study the Article/ Study Material
Try to understand that how we know, who I am?
How personality is determined by self as well as others?
How we understate our personality?
What is the role of ‘others’ in shaping and understanding ‘my’ personality?
Expected Outcome
Students will be able to understand the role of ‘other’ in shaping the ‘my’ personality. How people understand themselves from the ‘others’ point of view. People come to know about themselves or about ‘I’ or ‘me’ through the ‘other’s’ reflection. Hope students will be about to connect this piece of article with Charles Horton Cooley’s (1864-1929) theory of “Looking-glass self” which he as described in his work Human Nature and Social Order, 1902.
PLEASE NOTE: This is neither described nor has given any reference but this article very similar to that one. It may be coincident or by deliberation.
Introduction
The real-life world is shared. Or we can say that we are sharing our world, we are sharing our social world. Therefore whatever life we have is a shared one. Not only life but also our personality is shared. The personality is shaped and got meaning from the shared lifeworld
DEAR STUDENTS, PLEASE NOTE: the concept of “lifeworld” (in German LEBENSWELT) has given by the German thinker Edmund Husserl (1859-1938). AND PLEASE ALSO NOTE THAT THIS IS NOT GIVEN/ MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE. However, both are talking the same thing including Talcott Parsons which we have seen earlier.
We are shaping our personality in the living world; we are getting meaning and value from there. Even many times we are not aware of ourselves, and getting meaning from the society. We also come to know the value of this from society.
The personality is socially constructed. The society is constructing the personality, and also giving the shape, meaning and value.
However, the question is how this is happening?
In current society, it is happening in many ways. Like even through social media. But the article has written in 1966 (The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge, 1966 by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckman), therefore the article is only talking about the face-to-face interaction a FACEBOOK interaction or like this.
The article is arguing that in the face-to-face interaction we know ourselves through their expression. However is possible that we fail to read their reaction correctly or maybe s/he has asses ‘me’ incorrectly. The other limitations or situation is that these reaction and reaction reading is SUBJECTIVE, not OBJECTIVE. It depends on the person to person that is personality to personality, when whenever we are saying the person we are in fact talking about the personality.
But even with own limitations, the authors have said that “indeed, it may be argued that the other in the face-to-face situation is more real to me than I myself. Of course I ‘know myself better’ than I can ever know him. My subjectivity is accessibility to me in a way he can never be, no matter how ‘close’ our relationship.”
The face to face situations is typically reciprocal.
In our face to face time, sometimes we use to recognize someone from through social identity like American, Indian and so on.
Bargaining activity
Sometimes we are bargaining in our face-to-face conversation. This is happening in general during the conversation between the buyers and sellers. This is the type of interaction from the seller's point of view and typical from byres point of view.
Typification of the interaction
The authors are talking about the typification of the interaction. They are talking about the degree of anonymity on the basis of the degree of interaction.
Types of Interaction on the basis of the degree of anonymity
The authors are saying that we have two types of interactions, (1) Less Anonymity and (2) More Anonymity on the basis of the degree of anonymity on the basis of face-to-face interaction. THEREFORE,
1. If we have more face-to-face interaction then we will have less anonymity.
2. And if we have less face-to-face interaction than we can say that we have more anonymity. However, the authors have also sad that it also depends on the situation.
FOR EXAMPLE: This is possible that one may more interact face-to-face with the other person than their spouse. But it not means that the OTHER PERSON has less anonymity and THEIR SPOUSE have more anonymity. Here the degree of anonymity does not depend on the degree of face-to-face interaction rather a degree of personal relations.
YOU TAKE ANOTHER REAL LIFE EXAMPLE OF YOURSELF
Maybe some of you are living in Delhi just to pursue undergraduate courses. And your family members are living in another state. Therefore naturally you will have more face-to-face interaction with your friend or those who are living in Delhi. BUT it not means that your parents and family have more degree of anonymity than the other. IF WE ARE ONLY COMPARE between these two situations.
HOWEVER, this is applicable for your two friends first who is living out of Delhi and who are you, a classmate.
HOWEVER, I CAN GIVE YOU ANOTHER EXAMPLE WHICH IS DEFYING THE THEORY OF BERGER AND LUCKMANN FROM MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. I am feeling more attached to some of my school and college friends than to those to whom I have regular face-to-face interaction/s. Even to those whom I didn’t meet for the last ten years. YOU TOO MANY HAVE SIMILAR EXPERIENCE.
ON THE BASIS OF ABOVE EXAMPLE I can say that the degree of anonymity does not always depend on the basis of face-to-face interaction.
ALSO THAT, these days we have many means of communication which was not available during the writing of this book. i.e. during the 1960s. But it not means that we have lost the importance of face-to-face interaction.
FOR EXAMPLE these days we can listen to any music performance (audio or audio-visual) on YouTube, TV, Internet, Netflix, Amazon Prime etc. BUT EVEN THEN THE LIVE PERFORMANCE HAS HIGH DEMAND. Listening to live music by the artist will give you more attachment than listening to it on the music app or on YouTube or any such places.
Degree of Anonymity is Dynamic
The anonymity is not a static reality. Degree of Anonymity is dynamic; it changes over the time period on the basis of the face-to-face to interaction. Means maybe I change my degree of face-to-face interaction to the different people over the time period, which further led to the change in the degree of anonymity in the interaction.
Non Availability of Face-to-Face Interaction and Social Structure
We also use to interact with our ancestors and the next generation. And another is unavailable for face-to-face interactions. We use to interact with our ancestors through their writing, memories, establishment, and nationality or even in the imagination. We are interacting them in the form of some response. FOR EXAMPLE, people are the sacrifice for the loyalty towards the founding father/ mother of the institution. On the other hand, people are interacting with their future generation through the good act that they think that they have to do for the future generation. THE GOOD EXAMPLE HERE is that all environmental movement is based on the good environment for the future generation. In both cases, we cannot interact with them. But we are interaction.
Berger and Luckmann are saying that both interactions are socially constructed and such social structure is an essential element of the reality of everyday life.
Word Meaning: ipso facto: this is a Latin phrase, which means “by the fact itself”.
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