Editing Human communication (section)

=== Studies on Face-to-Face Communication ===
Most research and studies on face-to-face interaction is done via direct observation; the goal is to explain the regularities in the actions observed in these interactions.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Key |first=Mary Ritchie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tbg98xnbIYwC&pg=PA129 |title=The Relationship of Verbal and Nonverbal Communication |date=1980 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-90-279-7637-6 |language=en}}</ref> The study of face-to-face interaction examines its organization, rules, and strategy. It has been of interest to scholars since at least the early 20th century.<ref name="Kendon 1975">{{Cite book |last1=Kendon |first1=Adam |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rNy1hVGq2sMC&pg=PA1 |title=Organization of Behavior in Face-to-face Interaction |last2=Harris |first2=Richard M. |last3=Key |first3=Mary Ritchie |date=1975 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-90-279-7569-0 |language=en}}</ref> One of the earliest social science scholars to analyze this type of interaction was sociologist [[Georg Simmel]]. He defined a society as a number of individuals intertwined by various interactions. In his 1908 book, he observed that sensory organs play an important role in interaction, discussing examples of human behavior such as eye contact.<ref name="Kendon 1975" />  His insights were soon developed by others, including [[Charles Cooley]] and [[George Herbert Mead]].<ref name="Kendon 1975" /> Their theories became known as symbolic interactionism; and have since opened the door to a variety and wide range of other theories.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Demeulenaere |first=Pierre |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gu7q4ND3ItwC&pg=PA89 |title=Analytical Sociology and Social Mechanisms |date=2011-03-24 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-49796-1 |language=en}}</ref>  Symbolic interactionists are more concerned with subjective meaning rather than objective structure. They focus on how individuals interpret subjective meaning, which leads them to understand how that individual views the world as well as how the repetition of meaningful interactions among individuals is the groundwork to define the formation of society.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Carter |first=Michael |date=2015 |title=Symbolic Interactionism |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303056565 |website=sociopedia.isa}}</ref> By the mid-20th century, there was already a sizable scholarly literature on various aspects of face-to-face interaction.<ref name="Kendon 1975" /> Works on this topic have been published by scholars such as [[Erving Goffman]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Goodwin |first=Marjorie Harness |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ESDkGWmjNiIC&pg=PA2 |title=He-said-she-said: Talk as Social Organization Among Black Children |date=1990 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-20618-3 |language=en}}</ref> and [[Eliot Chapple]].<ref name="Kendon 1975" />