Social distancing as a critical test of the micro-sociology of solidarity
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Social distancing as a critical test of the micro‑sociology of solidarity Randall Collins1
© Springer Nature Limited 2020
Abstract Face-to-face (F2F) embodied interaction is the initial ingredient of interaction ritual (IR), the buildup of shared emotion, mutual focus of attention, and rhythmic entrainment that produces interpersonal solidarity. What happens when a natural experiment (the COVID-19 epidemic) prevents most F2F encounters or limits the modes of micro-interactional communication by masking? The paper examines evidence of the effects of masking and social distancing on public behavior, family life, remote schooling and remote work, prohibition of large audiences and assemblies, and attempts to substitute non-embodied electronic media. Most effects are consistent with IR theory predictions. Keywords Solidarity · Emotional energy · Remote interaction · Interaction ritual · Zoom fatigue Throughout human history, people have generated virtually all of their solidarity face-to-face, by physical co-presence. This has been disrupted by a world-wide natural experiment, a social experience of making people stay home, avoid public gatherings, avoid interacting with strangers except when wearing masks and staying six feet apart. What happens when the normal conditions of social interaction—formulated by Durkheim (1912) and Goffman (1967), and formally stated as the theory of interaction ritual chains—are sharply disrupted? Does everything in the theory disappear, and human social life takes on an entirely new form, operating by different causal mechanisms? Or do we find which variables and processes are stronger than others, which ones are replaceable and which are not? Since the publication of Interaction Ritual Chains (Collins 2004a, b), the issue has been discussed whether mediated forms of interaction, especially electronic * Randall Collins [email protected] 1
Department of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania, 3718 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104‑6299, USA Vol.:(0123456789)
R. Collins
communication in real time, substitute effectively for face-to-face (F2F) interaction. On the whole, this literature has found that electronic media do not substitute for it, but instead supplement it. Studying cell-phone use, Ling (2008) found that persons tend to call the same people that they normally interact with, and much of what they communicate is where they are and how they can meet. He also found there is some feeling of social solidarity—personal belonging—in talking over a mobile phone, but that it is a weaker feeling than F2F. This may explain why cell-phone users spend much more time telephoning than traditional land-line users did, in this respect similar to drug addicts who increase their dose as its effects decline. Without trying to review the entire literature on mobile-phone/smartphone use and social media generally, it can be noted that communicative fashions change. Many people (especially younger) in recent years prefer to communicate by text messages rather than orally. Even before th
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