Social Norm: Unwritten Rules
Journal 1
Social Norm is a belief formed by a group of people that how members should behave, in other words these are the unwritten rules. Social norms are developed to control the behaviour. I violated a social norm about 4 years back in India to which I got different reactions from different people, It is a social norm in India that when the bride leaves her paternal house after marriage everybody cries because after marriage she is going to stay at her in laws house and she is now their responsibility, she will come to her parent’s house occasionally .They all will miss her and remember the memories from her childhood. It was the occasion of my cousin’s marriage, when she was about to leave with her husband for her in laws house everybody
started crying along with my cousin but I was not crying at that time, everybody was surprised that I was not crying because I am attached emotionally with my cousin who was the bride, we shared everything in our lives with each other. I told everyone that there is nothing to cry because the girl is going to start her new life with her husband; we should think that she is not leaving her family but instead of that we should think that she has got a new family. I told them that we should say bye to her with smile on our faces, in that way it will be easy for her to start her new life with joy. Most of my family members agreed with me, they said that it is a wonderful thought; they all stopped crying at that time. But there were some people who were very upset with my point, they said that it is a social norm and we should not violate it, there are certain rules made by our ancestors and we should behave according to these rules .For those people I was a rebel for them at that time. I told them that it is time to change some norms that are of no use to us. My words at that time to my family, relatives and my cousin were that we are in the 21st century and it is the time to change our vision and to broaden our state of mind.
Social Norm is a belief formed by a group of people that how members should behave, in other words these are the unwritten rules. Social norms are developed to control the behaviour. I violated a social norm about 4 years back in India to which I got different reactions from different people, It is a social norm in India that when the bride leaves her paternal house after marriage everybody cries because after marriage she is going to stay at her in laws house and she is now their responsibility, she will come to her parent’s house occasionally .They all will miss her and remember the memories from her childhood. It was the occasion of my cousin’s marriage, when she was about to leave with her husband for her in laws house everybody
started crying along with my cousin but I was not crying at that time, everybody was surprised that I was not crying because I am attached emotionally with my cousin who was the bride, we shared everything in our lives with each other. I told everyone that there is nothing to cry because the girl is going to start her new life with her husband; we should think that she is not leaving her family but instead of that we should think that she has got a new family. I told them that we should say bye to her with smile on our faces, in that way it will be easy for her to start her new life with joy. Most of my family members agreed with me, they said that it is a wonderful thought; they all stopped crying at that time. But there were some people who were very upset with my point, they said that it is a social norm and we should not violate it, there are certain rules made by our ancestors and we should behave according to these rules .For those people I was a rebel for them at that time. I told them that it is time to change some norms that are of no use to us. My words at that time to my family, relatives and my cousin were that we are in the 21st century and it is the time to change our vision and to broaden our state of mind.