Social Behavior Observation: Analysis of a Social Event

This assignment is a sociological analysis of a birthday brunch at a mall, observing interactions between friends and cousins. The student describes the event, highlighting common behaviors like social media use and shared preferences, as well as outliers such as a political discussion that disengaged other participants. The analysis connects observations to sociological theories by Emile Durkheim and Karl Marx, exploring concepts like social integration and false consciousness. The student notes the strengthening of social ties through social media and contrasts the differing levels of engagement during the event, providing insights into the dynamics of the observed social setting. The paper includes a bibliography citing the Openstax Introduction to Sociology from Rice University.

Running Head: SOCIAL BEHAVIOR 0
Observation of social behavior

SOCIAL BEHAVIOR 1
The event was the birthday party where the best friends and cousins were invited for a
brunch in evening at a mall. The event continued for around four hours. The reason for choosing
this event is the first-time interaction between my best friends and cousins and the precious time
spent on this memorable day (The Rice University , 2015).
we met at the food court of the mall at round 5pm, As my best friends were not
acquainted with my cousins, the short introduction took place between them, After my friends
and cousins become comfortable with each other, the light conversation started on various topics
related to the ambience of the mall and the hefty prices charged for the simplest services
rendered in the food court, our conversation continued then one of my cousins who joined late
came with beautiful chocolate cake as a present and insisted on cutting it. The cake cutting took
place, with friends making videos and instantly uploading on Instagram as stories. Then after
enjoying the cake cutting ceremony where we tossed on each other, applying the creamy part of
cake on each other’s faces, I collected the menu of all the food brands available in the food court
and asked the members to mention their favorite food items; they would like to get ordered.
After the brunch was ordered which included pizzas, noodles and soft drinks which were then,
picked up from the counter when the order was ready.
We all savored the delicious brunch, among my friends, one of them remarked that no
pizzas stand at par with Pizza hut’s pizzas, on which all of them nodded in agreement. During
the interaction, two of my cousins started their discussion on current political environment in the
country for about an hour while leaving us in disengagement and the we had no other option then
to be a mere listener of their discussion. After two hours of conversation at the food court, we
went for a stroll in mall where some pictures were clicked at beautiful sceneries, some were
selfies while on request, some pictures were clicked by security personnel in the mall so that

SOCIAL BEHAVIOR 2
every member can be captured in memories. After leaving the mall, we sat in the bench of a park
where everyone appreciated the treat provided to them, then they book their cabs and bid each
other a warm good bye in the hope of meeting some other day in future (The Rice University ,
2015).
In the above social interaction, the common social characteristics in the event were.
All participants were active on social media
In the social interaction above, it was observed that at the time of cake cutting and
strolling in the mall, everyone clicked and made videos, which were uploaded as stories on
Instagram. The characteristics which were common were their availability on social media (The
Rice University , 2015). The social media made the social integration between the participants
possible as according to the societal theory by Emile Durkheim which states that if a person does
not act according to the societal norms, which would result in social isolation resulting in
depression in a person. According to her, the connectivity between people provides strength to
the relationships (The Rice University , 2015). Here in the social interaction, the social media
acted as a connector thus strengthening the ties among the participants.
No pizza stands at par with Pizza Hut ‘s pizza
In the above-described social interaction, when one of the friends remarked that pizza
hut’s pizza is the best then on this everyone agreed with a node. Everyone’s likings of a pizza
were the common social characteristics (The Rice University , 2015).

SOCIAL BEHAVIOR 3
Behaviors which were outliners
Participants discussing Political events for an hour
At food court, the two participants, very passionately started discussing about political
environment in a country for about an hour, without caring about the event and other members
getting bored of their conversation. The behavior of bringing a very different topic in the event
was an outliner. According to societal theory by Karl Max in which he explains the concept of
False Consciousness where the beliefs, ideals of a dominant person are imposed on the less
dominant party (The Rice University , 2015). In the social interaction, the two members who
were higher in terms of age and wisdom had taken the conversation to politics where the other
members were not in the position to oppose their idea of discussing politics, they had to simply
support them by acting as a mere listener (The Rice University , 2015).

SOCIAL BEHAVIOR 4
Bibliography
The Rice University . (2015, 1 January). Introduction to Sociology. Openstax. Houston, Texas, United
States.