Symbolic Interactionalism

Symbolic Interactionalism is a sociological term coined by and popularized by George Mead and Charles Cooley.  I have mentioned it in other blogs of mine it basically says that people speak, act, and interact with each other  through symbols and through interpreting these symbols one can know their inner most desires and thoughts.  To give some examples the clothes one chooses to wear is a symbol of how they want to be perceived by others.  When one starts to view the actions of individuals as symbols of how they want to be perceived and who they are at very deep level without actually knowing the individual well.
This then opens the door for arch symbols which are symbols which envelop many different meanings which are similar but have commonality.  To give a simple example of these you could read my Blogs entitles Pardon the Flame and Bottling Lightning which show how many deep meanings can be connected to seemingly small symbols. To better illustrate this concept one can look at the  "Apologize" music video from One Republic; It is great because it tells a whole story just using symbols. So if you read what these symbols can mean and then watch the music video you can understand the story which all the symbolism tell.  I will list a few of the symbols and their meanings and if you see what they do and how they interact in both placement and what happens to them you can understand the whole story.
Flower: Is often used as a symbol of love.
Water: Purity, innocence.
Doves: peace and freedom
Phone: Communication
Mask: Lies Deception
Heartshaped box: Right side up it is a heart waiting to recieve love: On its side it is an empty heart.
Vase: in the music video shows the relationship of the individuals because a vase holds flowers
One Upside Down Flower Falling into the vase: One of the individuals in the relationship didn't enter the relationship with the right intentions.
Wedding Ring also Wedding Figuring: Marriage.
Candles: Life cycle, (in this case the life of the relationship)
Glass Slipper: Fairy Tail ending.
Flower Blooming: allure, sex (the flowers depicted are not in the vase hint hint)
Mirror: Reflection (I would hope anyone who read my blog would know most of these)
Ink: the ink itself is black which is often dirtying or marking something in some way that cannot be undone.
pocket watch: time
Fire: destruction and cleansing
The rest of the symbolism come with how they interact with each others.

So after having watch it you should have been able to see a story of two people in a relationship in which one wasn't as committed as the other  and ended up cheating on them.  then the couple tries to get back together because they are still in love and then the person who was cheated on cant forget whats happened so this time the relationship break up because of them.
I hope you enjoyed my little teaching sections and I hope it helped you learn about how symbolic interactionalism works, though most symbols of what people do are implied by thinking logically it is a great example.