Would You Like a Condom? Symbolic Interactionism in Social Artifacts - A Quasi-Experiement

HUB 302-131

An awareness about the nature in which everyday interactions unfold, may lead to a greater understanding of unusual forms of interaction. With this in mind researchers took to the campus at Riverside City College to try and gain a better understanding of students acceptance of condoms and their sequential use of said birth control. Viewing such interactions through a lens of symbolic interactionism, researchers aim to interpret students reactions to condom “giveaways” as similar to their overall comfort, willingness to discuss, and use of barrier birth control. It was noted that students who passed by the “giveaway” table had two general responses. Responses by student could be narrowed down to apprehension or hyper-enthusiasm. While such responses were expected by researchers, the rates, situations, and concentrations of either apprehension or hyper-enthusiasm were unexpected. It is therefore the purpose of this paper to provide possible insight to how students feel about condoms and their openness about sexual activity in general.