ABSTRACT
Interaction is the essence of all varieties of interactionist sociology, and in fact of everyday life. One of the founders of symbolic interaction, Herbert Blumer (1969), stated unequivocally that society consists of people engaging in symbolic interaction. On a constant, everyday basis, we interact with each other, people in the past, people in the future, and ourselves. Through interaction, we become human, respond pragmatically to social situations, negotiate social meanings, shape our behavior, experience and manage emotions, and shape and refi ne culture (Sandstrom et al. 2006). Interaction can occur through any number of media: speech, visual symbols, written text, and-of coursemusic. Interaction is fi rst and foremost the mechanism for generating and sharing meanings.
