George Herbed Mead's Social Theory And Interactionist Perspective

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In the 21st century of creation and innovations, technology plays a significant role in making people’s life easier. Technology represents set of skills and methods to accomplish a particular task or to solve a problem. Starting from ancient years, various philosophers described technology by using different definitions. While observing people building houses, which was similar to birds making nests, an ancient Greek philosopher Democritus stated that technology was imitation of nature. Another Greek philosopher and scientist Aristotle compared natural objects and objects made by people. In other words, he stated that natural objects could reproduce themselves, however; technological objects disappear without people’s care. Moreover, a philosopher of technology Carl Mitcham introduces technology as a combination of humanity and social science (1994). One of the professors and researchers Edmore …show more content…

This study views how George Herbed Mead, who is one of the founders of Pragmatism, and an American sociologist Erving Goffman, had a considerable impact in the 20th century’s social theory in the history of interactionist perspective. Symbolistic interactionism indicates that various meanings given to symbols influence peoples’ behavior in society. As technology integrated to society, everybody can easily understand the technological symbols and use them to perform a particular action. For instance, everybody knows a “power” button, which appears on each device to turn on it on or off. Moreover, smartphones use various icons designed to represent phone calls, mailbox, the internet or gallery (folder of photos). Another example can be “like” buttons or “smiles” (symbols to express different feelings) used in social media applications. In other words, technology represent a platform containing symbols, which help people to understand each