Differences between social action and social interaction : Both social action and interaction are the basic structure of social life and without these, the concept of life is impossible. Every social interaction is a social action but every social action is not necessarily a social interaction. This shows that there are some differences between social action and social interaction. The detail is given below: 1. Social interaction is a two-way action and needs two individuals, for occurring and they' should be face to face with each other whereas social action can be done by an individual but if two or more individuals are doing that action they need not to be face to face.