Читать книгу Essentials of Sociology - George Ritzer - Страница 157

To sociologists who theorize about exchange, interaction is a rational process in which those involved seek to maximize rewards and minimize costs. Interaction is likely to persist as long as those involved find it rewarding, and it is likely to wind down or end when one or more of the parties no longer find it rewarding. An important idea in this context is the social norm of reciprocity, which means that those engaged in interaction expect to give and receive rewards of roughly equal value (Gouldner 1960; Mazelis 2015; Molm 2010). When one party feels that the other is no longer adhering to this norm—that is, not giving about as much as he or she is receiving—the relationship is likely to end.

Studies of exchange relationships, like much else in sociology, are now being challenged to find ways of dealing with new forms of virtual interaction: e-mail, social networking, and interaction on Skype and WhatsApp. One researcher who has explored the effects of virtual reality on interaction in the “real” world, and vice versa, concludes that “the constantly evolving avatar [or digital representation of oneself] influences the ‘real’ self, who now also orients toward virtual, yet all-too-real others” (Gottschalk 2010, 522). In other words, interactions in the digital realm and those in the physical realm both influence the self. Additional research questions come to mind readily. For example, are people compelled to cooperate to the same extent in the digital realm (such as when using e-mail communication) as they are in the material world (such as during in-person communication; Naquin, Kurtzberg, and Belkin 2008)? However, it is important to remember that the digital and material worlds are not separate from one another but, rather, interpenetrate. An important issue, then, is the connection between, for example, collaborative relationships online and offline (Ritzer 2013).