Social norms and their effects are often nebulous. To feel how powerful even ins
ID: 3463744 • Letter: S
Question
Social norms and their effects are often nebulous. To feel how powerful even insignificant social norms can be, try breaking one. Pick a social norm that seems inconsequential to you and break it. Consider the following options:
Public Behavior:
Look up (at the sky or ceiling) all the time
Say “hello” to everyone
When people ask how you are doing, tell them about your whole day
Wear your clothes backwards
Don’t take your coat, hat and gloves off while you are inside
Violate people’s personal space
Whisper when you talk
Elevator Behavior:
Talk to strangers
Face the back of the elevator
Push buttons to floors you’re not going to
Don’t get off
Don’t get on – tell people you’ll wait for the next one
Classroom Behavior (if you are in a face-to-face class):
Make constant eye contact with the instructor
Talk and then raise your hand
Dining Behavior:
Eat soup with a fork
Eat steak with a knife and spoon
Eat with your hands
You get the idea… feel free to come up with your own social norm to break!
This assignment can be a lot of fun. It can also feel awkward and uncomfortable when you feel how deeply ingrained norms are and how uncomfortable people can be with someone not adhering to them.
Explanation / Answer
Social norms are not definite and can varies person to person as well as community to community. Social norms made for social control but some social norms build social pressure on individual and groups.
We experiences fun and achievements when we break social norms, some people always tries to break social norms while many of us always follow these norms, it depends on us to follow or not because they are made for development of social structure.
Taboos and rituals are examples of social norms but in different way, let’s talk about a social norm that is wearing clothes in particular way. We know the dressing sense is also a social norm and if we violate it we will be center of attraction and fun. No one wants to be weird but if we behave opposite to social norms we can experience different behaviour, like if I wear clothes backwards, I will be the center of attraction and the probability of questioning can increase, some of us take it as a fun but most of us will behave like, I am an alien because they don’t have a habit to see any person who is wearing clothes backwards.
I think, social norms cannot define who we are but they create personal condtion and characteristics for us.
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