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Social Norms Anywhere we go, there are going to be at least a couple of different norms occurring at the same time. From walking onto a train to sitting in a someone’s home, everyone will behave in distinct manners to which they have grown accustomed. The way we behave is not in the matter of right or wrong, but only what our society allows us to. In our society, we have a number of society norms that we abide by. For example, there is an unwritten rule of how one should behave in an elevator.
For example, it is proper to eye-to-eye contact, move away from strangers, and respect your elders. When a social norm is broke, people may respond with apprehension, humor, panic, anger, or an array of other emotions. When we think of a norm, we probably think of it as being normal. In sociology terms, norm means, a standard or representative value for a group. The norm, that is more common to people is social norm. Meaning expectations about what behavior thoughts or feelings are appropriate within a given group within a given context.
In society today we the people decide what is normal and abnormal, when I think back I have broke several social norms, I actually broke two and did not even know it until I was done with my acting. The two social norms that I broke were, not praying before eating my meals since I have been in college and being rude to authority such as my mother when I being a spoiled brat. When my mother called me back, she just sounded disgusted at me. I know she wanted to ask why did I have an attitude but she just kept quiet.
By the way, I did apologize to my mother, so I would not feel like an idiot that whole night. When I finally broke down, and told my mother that I had an expectation to uphold while in college she started to laugh. Her response towards me was, she was going to love me no matter how I many mistakes I make. I thought that was love that let me know that she does not care what people think she was always going to be there for me, no matter how I act.
When I broke the norm of how I feel, I felt insecure about myself and I really did care of what people were going to say about me. Nevertheless, I did learn this; people are very judgmental on a person that they have no clue about. The other norm that I broke was, going against authority, the authority that I went against was my grandfather during family gathering. When I did this norm, I really felt bad because, me and my grandfather are so close and I would never had disrespected him the way I did when breaking this norm.
My grandfather had asked me to pass him the gravy for his meat. I responded and said, “Don’t you have arms to reach for it”. My mom gave me that look as if I am a get you when we get home. Everybody at the table just stopped eating and looked at me as if I was stupid. I just kept eating as if nothing ever happened. Once everybody finished their dinner, I realized that I had broken the norm; I destroyed the relationship between my grandfather and the rest of the family that was at the dinner table.