In the article “Symbolic Interactionism” by Herbert Blumer, Blumer discusses the perspective of symbolic interactionism. This looks at the problems in the natural world, and studies them to come up with conclusions about them. People develop their identities and their senses of how society works and what constitutes fair play in the course of their interaction with each other. Blumer discusses the four characteristics of symbolic interactionism which are: first, the world is understood through mutually understood symbols, second, that reality is subjective; it is not something that exists out there that people experience. How one interprets means more. Third, everyone has their own reality; there are multiple realities, not just one. Fourth, what is defined as real is real in its consequences. Blumer also explains a phenomenon. There are four characteristics used to explain a phenomenon. The first characteristic is to explain the meaning by clarifying why people interact the way that they do. The second is to describe how people are interpreting the situation. The third is to look at the social interactions by looking at what people are doing. The fourth is the individual acts of interaction, how are people acting on their own.
I conducted my own breaching experiment to look at how breaking a social norm would affect the people around me. I wanted to see what their reactions would be and how they would interpret the situation. I did this experiment twice, for the first experiment I went into a full elevator and instead of facing the door; I had my back against the door and my face toward the other people in the elevator. Later that day I did the same experiment in a different elevator where there was only one other person in the elevator. The reactions that I received were different, which is expected because reality is not fixed, it constantly changes, and people are different and they interpret things in different ways. When I did this in the full elevator the first reactions that I got were faces that looked extremely surprised and there was a tension of awkwardness that filled the elevator immediately. I noticed that it was also difficult for me to feel normal about this because it is outside of my comfort zone and because it felt not normal doing this. I then started to make eye contact with some of the people on the elevator, but I noticed that as soon as I did people would look away, look at their phone, or look at the buttons on the elevator door. Why I believe that people reacted the way that they did was because they knew that what I was doing was against the norm and by changing what they were used to immediately made them uncomfortable. No one asked me why I was doing this, instead they used their body language to tell me that what I was doing was making them uncomfortable and in order for that un-comfort to go away I should stand the way that they were standing. When I did this experiment the second time, when there was only one other person in the elevator I did not get an uncomfortable vibe like I did the first time. The other person was also looking at their phone or looking at the numbers of the elevator and did not question my action. This experiment was a little example at how breaking a social norm by not following the invisible rules of interactions that we have given meaning to can throw people off and make them feel uncomfortable.
I conducted my own breaching experiment to look at how breaking a social norm would affect the people around me. I wanted to see what their reactions would be and how they would interpret the situation. I did this experiment twice, for the first experiment I went into a full elevator and instead of facing the door; I had my back against the door and my face toward the other people in the elevator. Later that day I did the same experiment in a different elevator where there was only one other person in the elevator. The reactions that I received were different, which is expected because reality is not fixed, it constantly changes, and people are different and they interpret things in different ways. When I did this in the full elevator the first reactions that I got were faces that looked extremely surprised and there was a tension of awkwardness that filled the elevator immediately. I noticed that it was also difficult for me to feel normal about this because it is outside of my comfort zone and because it felt not normal doing this. I then started to make eye contact with some of the people on the elevator, but I noticed that as soon as I did people would look away, look at their phone, or look at the buttons on the elevator door. Why I believe that people reacted the way that they did was because they knew that what I was doing was against the norm and by changing what they were used to immediately made them uncomfortable. No one asked me why I was doing this, instead they used their body language to tell me that what I was doing was making them uncomfortable and in order for that un-comfort to go away I should stand the way that they were standing. When I did this experiment the second time, when there was only one other person in the elevator I did not get an uncomfortable vibe like I did the first time. The other person was also looking at their phone or looking at the numbers of the elevator and did not question my action. This experiment was a little example at how breaking a social norm by not following the invisible rules of interactions that we have given meaning to can throw people off and make them feel uncomfortable.