Symbolic Interactionist is one of the major structures of sociological theory. It analyzes society by acknowledging the personal understanding that people establish on events, objects, and behaviors. This perspective relies on the symbolic meaning that people develop and rely upon in the process of social interaction. Without social interaction, you are not a social being, and this theory observes what people do on a daily basis and why they do them. Seeing that this theory is a micro-level perspective, people may miss the larger concerns of society.
In my family, I don’t have any relatives around my age due to my mother being the youngest of seven. Her siblings had children more than a decade before I was born so the majority of my cousins when I was around ten years old, have already initiated in starting their lives and careers. One cousin always stood out in particular to me. He never came to family parties or events, never wished anyone a Happy Birthday, or tried reaching out to us at all. Being that adults always surrounded me when I was growing up, my mother knew I was mature enough to tell me that my cousin was an alcoholic and a drug addict.
Taking in that information at such a young age was very overwhelming considering it was my first time hearing of this in my family. It first started with the alcohol. As the years went on, he started getting so careless and irresponsible that he lost his very well paid job in Manhattan. He became so depressed that his addict state of mind started growing stronger and more powerful until he found a new addiction. Drugs. Instead of him being rowdy or uncontrollable, he started self-medicating himself to become more tranquil and forget about his troubles. While doing this, he never thought about how this was affecting his family and loved ones. Fortunately, since he has such a loving and supportive