Social Situations
In the broadest sense, any interaction with another person is a social situation. This includes everything from casually greeting neighbors to deeply meaningful shared experiences such as a 50th wedding anniversary.
Social Relationships
Social relationships are people who you get to know and who get to know you. This is the primary source of social connectedness whereby people learn about each other and may come to appreciate each other. Social relationships can be chosen such as a friendship or can be situational such as a classmate.
Social Groups
Groups of people that have some shared sense of belonging or common interests. This includes situational social groups such as neighbors and voluntary groups such as hobby groups.
Social Identity
Elements of self-concept that derive from social memberships. Social identity includes ascribed things that you are born into such as nationality and things that you choose to pursue such as learning a second language.
Social Behavior
The behavior of people in social situations and relationships. For example, group cohesion whereby people will increase their support for one another when they feel they belong to the same group. Human social behavior is complex and it is also common for competition and conflict to arise within a group.
Social Norms
Expectations for behavior within a society and culture. These are situational. For example, the behavior expected in a formal ceremony is different from the behavior expected in a sports match. Social norms tend to become basic sensibilities when you are immersed in a culture such that people will feel them as opposed to thinking about them. This can be seen in a basic norm such as wearing clothes to work, if someone doesn't follow the norm you may intuitively feel that it isn't right.
Social Status
Social status are signals that people use to place others in a social position or ranking. It is a common human behavior to engage in social comparison whereby people consider how they measure up to other people. It is equally common to consider how others compare to one another. Social status are the types of information that people use to make this comparison. This greatly influences behavior, so much so that entire industries have emerged to provide products and services that signal social status.
Others
The list above is mostly focused on social processes. The features of society itself are also social. The following are additional examples of things that are social.Communities | Cultures |
Institutions | Organizations |
Social Systems | Societies |
Social Things vs Personal Things
Things can be inherently social such as a nation, institution, organization, community or culture. Other things can be viewed as inherently personal such as freedom, thinking, emotion and your life. The line between these two can differ by culture or individual perspective. This can come down to style, preferences and situation. For example, some people heavily prefer learning, working and making decisions as a group while others will be far more productive doing these things independently.Discussion
Humans are oriented towards social processes such that humanity itself can be viewed as a social thing.Overview
Social things include both social behaviors and the structures and systems of society.
Summary
Social things are structures, situations and behaviors that involve interactions and relationships between people. This can be contrasted with personal, natural and technological things that don't involve interpersonal interaction.
