The document summarizes a sociological study conducted by the author in a pub in Reading, UK. The author observes different groups of people in the pub and applies the theories of Karl Marx to help explain their social interactions. One group of older men is noted as fiercely competitive in their drinking and comparing of mobile phones, supporting Marx's view that material interests drive human behavior. The author also describes interactions between male and female bar staff when serving different socioeconomic groups ("strata's") of customers.

1. Social Interactions in Society Essay
Social Interactions in Society I will be investigating social interaction amongst different members
of society and then applying the thoughts of the "three grandfathers of sociology" to their
behaviour. I chose to do my sociological study in a pub, called the Monks Retreat, which is
situated in Reading city centre and is one of the JP Weatherspoons franchises. I started my study
at 3pm on Tuesday 22nd November 2005. I decided upon a pub, because it is an environment where
a lot of different types of people are brought together into one place and so are easily observable,
also a pub is a place where people often feel comfortable and so are more likely to interact socially
with people around them....show more content...
There were some very interesting interactions between the male and female bar staff of the pub
when dealing with the different strata's of society. Also how the staff interacting with each other
when the bar was not busy, as most of the staff was male except for a lone, supervising female.
Karl Marx is one of the most important sociologists and so I will apply his theories first. Marx
believed in materialist determinism, where in the end what drives us, is material needs, the money
to buy the things, which we need, e.g. food alcohol and housing. Marx believes that material
interests are the key to what we want and need. In my study the group that I think is best described
my Marx's theories, is the group of old men, who were fiercely competitive, the four men, who were
all drinking, often forced slower drinkers to speed up in order to maintain pace with the rest of the
group. The men also competed over the quality of their mobile phones and set up challenges to see
who had the better model of mobile phone, the men all took pictures of similar items and then
compared and contrasted there pictures. They particularity took my attention as they interacted not
with themselves but with the different strata's of society who
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2. Social Interaction
How do you imagine social interaction within 10 years, taking into consideration the impact of
technology on human relations? Social interaction has been changing over the years as technology
has progressed. Especially during the last two decades, the evolving technology has provided a new
definition to human relations. During the 1990's, the only mobile company ruling was Nokia, and
lived up to its tag line of "Connecting people". That was one phase of social interaction then. As
technology advanced further, we not only have numerous mobile options but with varied capabilities
too. I strongly believe that these advancements have a positive as well as a negative impact on
human relationships. The modern technologies have made Internet...show more content...
As new gadgets will come up in the future, the current sophisticated ones will feel obsolete. With the
evolving new technologies prices of gadgets would fall – which would make the technology further
affordable, computing devices will interact with humans and understand human languages – for
instance Siri, Google voice, robots might do household work and become companions, virtual
human relationships would take a leap forward, variety of online businesses would be seen – in
short the possibilities are infinite. These emerging new technologies will keep leaving drastic
impacts on human relationships and modes of communication. People might rely entirely on online
communications and would forget the basic form of socializing. The drawbacks, however, would
eventually make the people habituated to the technologies. I would like to conclude with Einstein's
famous quote – "I fear the day when technology overlaps our humanity. It will be then that the
world will have permanent ensuing generations of idiots" How do you envision the city of the
future? According to the United Nations, by the year 2050, 70 % of the world's population will be
living in urban areas. Cities around the world continue to grow as more and more people move into
urban areas. This imposes tremendous pressure on the cities infrastructure, to cope with level of
influx. The exponential rise of population and urbanization has given rise
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3. Social Interaction Theory
My relationship with Haley is the perfect example of the saying, "friends come and friends go."
We were inseparable all throughout our high school years. Senior year we even decided to go to
the same college, Kent State University, and live together. Unfortunately, the summer before we
moved in she got a boyfriend. We went through all the stages of the social penetration theory, sadly
even depenetration. In the beginning, we had to make our way through the uncertainties we had
about each other. Then toward the end I started to see that I was putting in way more effort than she
was, bringing social exchange theory into the mix. As a result of this, we no longer talk anymore.
In seventh grade when I first met Haley we were both full
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