social norm
Social norms are rules of certain kind of behavior that society uses to evaluate the population and provides normalcy. When it comes to responding to the breaking of social norms people have different ways to cope or react to it. Some reactions can be pleasant, some could be horrible or even judgmental. Some people believe breaking a social norm could be needed to help govern or control the society. On the other hand others believe breaking social norms are un-normal and that no one should break those rules. There are so many social norms that sometimes it feels impossible not to break any. Many social norms like walking on the wrong side of the sidewalk, talking to yourself in public, or even not wearing the same clothes everyone else thinks is cool could be a tremendous norm broken in today’s young society. An everyday norm would be wearing a clean shirt, but when you break that norm by not wearing a clean shirt, it was a drastic shock to the people that are stuck in the societies mold. What if wearing a stained shirt was the normal thing to do for a certain person or group of persons? Are the people stuck in societies mold wrong for thinking their norm is correct? There really is no wrong or right answer to those questions because my normal way of looking at things may not be the same as the next persons.
When doing my experiment of “breaking the social norm” by wearing a stained t-shirt I wasn’t really sure what to expect from most people, especially from the strangers. Most reactions I planned on receiving were all negative, let’s face the facts if you’re not up to par with society then you’re bound to get looked down on or belittled. The negative results outweigh the positive any day but there were positive and helpful reactions. I was really baffled from some of the positive reactions because I wasn’t expecting them. Some people reacted in a very stereotypical way that most in society would have reacted.
My first reaction took place in the local