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sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...
, interaction frequency is the total number of social interactions per unit time. Interactions, or what
Georg Simmel Georg Simmel (; ; 1 March 1858 – 26 September 1918) was a German sociologist, philosopher, and critic. Simmel was influential in the field of sociology. Simmel was one of the first generation of German sociologists: his neo-Kantian approach ...
in his pioneering work called Wechselwirkungen, are the basis for society itself, according to
Herbert Blumer Herbert George Blumer (March 7, 1900 – April 13, 1987) was an American sociologist whose main scholarly interests were symbolic interactionism and methods of social research. Believing that individuals create social reality through collective ...
.


Overview

Interaction can be either direct or indirect. * Interaction is direct, Hugo O. Engelmann explained, when participants exchange roles. * It is indirect when roles cannot be exchanged. Face-to-face conversations, phone calls, and on-line chats are direct interactions. TV shows, radio programs, videos and books are forms of indirect interaction. In other words, interaction occurs when one person perceives the behavior of another, whether or not the other is present. For dyads in small groups, direct interactions sum to n(n-1)/2, where n is the size of the population. Indirect interactions equal n(n-1). Indirect interactions, then, are roughly twice as likely as direct interactions. For large populations counting the number of direct interactions is not possible. However, as John Engelmann showed, the number can be estimated by multiplying the total number of miles traveled times the density of the population. A somewhat more sensitive estimate could be to multiply miles traveled times the square root of population density. The number of indirect interactions can be estimated through an analysis of online traffic. Andrew Lipsman, for example, reported that of the 2 million users that comScore samples, 6% account for approximately 50% of the Internet traffic. Interaction rests, first of all, on the fact that behavior varies in intensity. Individuals can be soft-spoken and thoughtful one moment, or cheerful and jumping for joy the next. Onlookers are apt to notice intense behavior, and thereby interact with the person whose behavior is most intense. In addition to intensity, behavior varies in complexity. It can be intricate one moment and simple the next. In other words, interactions can be behavior limiting, dynamically neutral, or behavior enlarging, respectively decreasing, maintaining, or increasing behavioral complexity.


Classic example

Theoretically, intensity and complexity are negatively correlated. The classic example of yelling "fire" in a theater illustrates that. Intensity increases, complexity declines, and alternatives diminish to fright, flight, and fight.
Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...
seems to have been the first to suggest a connection between intensity and reduced alternatives. In his view, "If we take intense delight in one thing, we cannot do anything else at all." Hypothetically, as interaction
frequency Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. Frequency is an important parameter used in science and engineering to specify the rate of oscillatory and vibratory phenomena, such as mechanical vibrations, audio ...
increases, interactive behavior becomes more intense, less complex, and increasingly repetitive. As the world’s population grows, and people interact with each other at an ever swifter pace, horizontal power structures replace vertical ones, and violence escalates. With the advent of the Internet, a share of violence seems to have shifted, intriguingly, from direct to indirect interaction. Ranting, raving, and threatening gestures have escalated in the
blogosphere The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community (or as a collection of connected communities) or as a social networking service in which everyday authors can pu ...
. Meanwhile, cultural closureEngelmann, Hugo O. (1991) "A Sociohistorical Perspective for East European Developments." In: ''Journal of Political and Military Sociology'', Vol. 19 (Winter):217-231. has taken on a new form called cyberbalkanization. In other words, individuals interact frequently and almost exclusively with people like themselves.


See also

* Dynamic density * One-third hypothesis * Socionics


References

{{reflist Sociological terminology