Micro-moments of social support: Self-service-occasioned offers at the family dinner table

Abstract

Extending work on the everyday communication practices through which relationships are constituted, we examined the micro–moments of food service and the provision of social support in field recordings of everyday family life. We found that frequently when communicators serve themselves an item at the dinner table they offer that item to others, even when there is no indication that the other needs it. We revealed specific communication practices through which social support is implemented when offering food to others during self–service, indicating that in delivering tangible social support one may also provide emotional social support. Additionally, we showed that precisely where the offer is produced during self–service further impacts the relational implications of this support.