Norm Violation
In today society social norms are little things in life that make people feel comfortable and help them to go through everyday activities. Social Norms are beliefs about what is acceptable in society. They are rules that a group uses for appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. These rules may be explicit or implicit. People often associate the most memorable behavior with the majority behavior and hence the rules about that is normative in that social context.
I decided that I was going to wear my clothes inside out as I went shopping at Target as my social norm violation. It’s just a common thing that you wear your clothes the right way and it’s something everyone does, everyday. Yes there are times when people may mistakenly put there shirt on inside out, but I don’t believe anyone tries to do this. I decided to wear my jeans inside out, (which is extremely awkward if you have never tried it) and my shirt, as I proceeded to walk into Target. I had my girlfriend accompany me on this, though she found it very funny, I felt very uncomfortable. Myself, I shop at Target because I like the atmosphere better as opposed to a Wal-Mart. Target seems to have a less bizarre population of shoppers and it’s more comfortable to me because of this. That is preciously why I chose this spot to test out my norm violation. Dangling pockets and all, I started on the grocery side of the store to do my shopping. This is usually the busiest part of the store so I thought it would be the best starting spot. I was hard pressed to make eye contact with anyone as I did my shopping, particularly because I am shy by nature and now I was even shyer knowing my clothes were inside out. I relied on my peripheral vision, and my girlfriend was with me to help observe people’s reactions.
The Term Paper on Young People as a Social Problem
In the wake of the alarming rate of juvenile delinquency and the accumulating cases of teenage suicide since the mid 90's, it's not surprising to see that the majority started to accuse young people as a source of social problem. Nowadays, some may even consider young people as a group of easily-agitated gangsters euipped with the potential ability and the desire to disrupt the present social ...
It seemed that a lot of people were so absorbed into what they were doing that they didn’t even notice the details of my clothing, or they were trying to be polite and not stare at me. However, my girlfriend and I noticed many people giving puzzled looks, staring, and even smirking at me and conversing with the people they were with. It was either that, or a couple of lady’s looked around to see if anyone else was seeing what they were seeing. I started to become very self conscious and wanted to leave, but my girlfriend being the outgoing one, encouraged me to continue shopping. I continued through the store to get everything on my list and I still got the same reactions from fellow shoppers. After I got everything that I needed I made my way to the checkout. It was the busiest time of the day and the lines were backed up. I felt so weird standing there in my inside out clothes, but I made it though the checkout and left the store. I felt a huge sigh of relief come over me as a left and I felt my embarrassment diminish as I got into my truck. As open minded as I try to be, this made me realize that I have certain social norms imbedded into myself. I was so glad to leave and it will be sort of weird going back into Target to do my shopping. I’m grateful for this eye opening experience, but I really don’t plan on doing anything like this in the near future. This shows that norms can make you feel comfortable, and if you break those norms, you seem to step outside your comfort zone. Overall this was a great experience.
