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Sociological Perspective: Lead Blog Post

Human Interactions

I am going to follow in the same direction as Paige, except take a more sociological approach. I analyzed this topic briefly in my blog post that was in response to Paige's lead blog post, however, I find human interactions very fascinating. Sociology studies human behavior and human interactions, and laughter is a significant part of interactions between individuals. We often study how humor is used to make fun of people (superiority theory) or to relieve stress (relief theory) however, laughter can also help alter people's perspective on important things in our lives. Humorous interactions seem to not be a top priority when people seek out comedic television shows or turn to political satire for their news. However, human interactions among other things shape our beliefs, behaviors, and overall opinions of the world.

For example, two friends are interacting through conversation and one says jokingly, "we need to show compassion for the mentally ill without letting them run for President." The other friend laughs simply because it was a joke, however, later on in the day, he begins to think about the extent of the joke. Was his friend just making a joke or was there a deeper meaning behind it? Was his friend implying that Trump is mentally ill, even though he knew that his friend was a conservative and voted for Trump? Then he begins to wonder if his friend knows more than him and begins to question whether the Trump administration is actually helpful to America. Now take this interaction and think about how many jokes people make or how many times you interact with people through laughter. It is not that hard to imagine now how much human interactions shape our lives and our views of the world. Political and social issues are very prevalent in our day to day lives and interactions with people, comedic or otherwise, often alter or shape our own opinions of those controversial topics.


Comments

  1. Do you think that humor is a subtle way of constantly shifting and critiquing social relations? Does humor constitute a way of offering a tiny ear-worm-of-a-hint that can burrow into someone's consciousness but change it later? What kinds of sociological paradigms to you think help us understand it?

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    1. Humor is definitely one example of something that can subtly shift people's viewpoint on certain topics which could slowly have an impact on the world as a whole when you begin to think about how many interactions you have with people on a day to day basis. Humor offers people an outlet for their anger or sadness, but it also allows for people to incorporate their viewpoints about politics or other widely discussed topics into their comedy. These types of jokes are made for people to laugh initially, but then question their own opinions later on when they try to understand the meaning behind the joke. One social paradigm is the symbolic interactionism theory which examines exactly what I've been talking about: the study of day to day interactions with people. As straightforward as this is, there is so many different interactions every single day that by just studying humor can be very complicated. Another paradigm is the conflict theory because this doesn't necessarily analyze interactions per se, but it studies the inequality between individuals or large groups of people. People use comedy to highlight inequality and injustices in a society by using humor to exaggerate them.

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    2. Your post has so many great arguments to think about, Faith! :) I am especially intrigued by the role conflict theory can play in analyzing polarizing political humor. From an anthropological approach, conflict theory essentially states that discord is an inherent aspect of human nature, but that conflict between micro groups promote overall group solidarity by drawing attention to the importance of the power held by the polarizing individual or institution (more reading on this subject at https://www.jstor.org/stable/173014?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents). So in this way, I think that political jokes don't necessarily subconsciously alter political beliefs. Rather, the humorous (depending on the in group or out group) attention drawn to a controversial topic can lead to more factual discussion and then a potential change in opinions.

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  2. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and it honestly led me to the topic for my next essay!! Thanks for the inspiration and continued dialogue. <3

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