How To Break A Norm

This two-part experiment leads me to realize that norms are very important in society. It keeps us in check in terms of how we act, behave, and interact with people. I did not expect to receive such remarks from my friends and peers. I didn’t think anyone would notice me eating with my mouth open, since many people keep to themselves and ignore most of the things going on around them. Many people stared at me as if something was wrong with me and felt uncomfortable with me. Socialization is the process by which one learns how to become a functioning member of society. I was not establishing that concept when I was eating with my mouth open, because I acted as a way that was not proper in

The title of this odd social experiment is Parental Permission. The title will make more sense once you become more familiar with the project. The aim of this project was to break an everyday social norm; a social norm is a set of rules or behaviors that are considered acceptable in society or among a group. As citizens of a society we all adhere to many social norms, a very common social norm is tipping a waiter or simply wearing clothes.

We’re trained as individuals to follow social norms, so breaking them can feel very uncomfortable. It was weird acting out of my comfort zone in order to accomplish this. I didn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea or see me as rude in any way. Most of the people acted how I expected they would. They didn’t know how to react/ they didn’t expect it to happen. It was more of a shocked reaction where they didn’t know what to say. The hardest part was getting a picture of the experiment in the act without being seen by the person in question. Especially in a dining hall it’s hard to hide a camera when you also need to be within view to take a picture which is why we tried to accomplish this in the less crowded cafe. This experiment made me realize how many things I see as “not normal” because society trained me to believe so. We follow trends without even realizing it. It’s made me wonder more about why I do the things I do, and why I think the way I do. Breaking a social norm shows you how dependent society is on social norms in

The best place to begin the discussion regarding the family meal and how it has changed is to discuss where the idea of dinner originated. A fairly new concept, dinner came about roughly 150 years ago. While many people consider family mealtime to be a “natural phenomenon; it is a social construction.” (Carroll, xvi) During colonial times the family functioned as one unit, with everyone in the family having a

In my family, dinner is a big part of our lives because I can relax and talk about what I have done in the day. Also, realistically, dinner is the best time of the day

“The Magic of a Family Meal” by Nancy Gibbs is an enlightening article that convinces the audience that enjoying the company of family during meal time benefits all members emotionally, spiritually, and health wise. Gibbs main point states, “This [the family meal] is where the tribe comes to transmit wisdom, embed expectations, confess, conspire, forgive, repair” (209). Families gathering for meals have the unique opportunity to become closer and favorably impact one another. This thesis enhances the tone overall. The tone of this essay is construed as encouraging and positive. Gibbs’ attitude is

He didn’t talk to me for days until my mom convinced him to. My mom told me stay quiet, listen and apologize while my dad expressed his feelings and opinions towards my previous behavior. During this “discussion,” I found out that my dad was really hurt at some of the things that I said about him. He didn’t even bother to consider some of the issues that I brought up because of that. I went too far while voicing my concerns on an issue which caused my dad to be against everything I’ve advocated for. My punishment for this was to discontinue debating because my dad thought that was the reason why I started to voice my opinions more often. Debate has been an amazing platform for me to develop many necessary skills, but my passion for social justice has mainly come from reading books and listening to what oppressed and marginalized people have to say. But I didn’t say anything to my dad about this. At the time, I just silently listened to everything he said and apologized at the

During my childhood my mother and father expected me, my brother and two sisters to be respectful, obedient and polite. They set a conservative tone for our house that was not as strict as a boarding school, but there were similarities. Now that is not to say they beat us, or were mean, in fact they loved us very much but the love was shown from a specific distance. We talked, we laughed, but we never talked loudly, and we never laughed too much. I can remember hugging my dad, but it was when I was pretty little. I guess he felt that I was a boy, and as such I had to stand on my own. My only problem was he worked so much I never really learned how to stand on my own as a man. He never taught me how to defend myself. My mom always told me to walk away from a fight, problem is kids don’t view the world as adults, and the kid looking to avoid a fight probably didn’t know how to fight, and that was just too tempting a target to pass up. After we mover to Cerritos it was different, my relationship with my dad changed. He was getting home after work on time, he was around in the evenings and on weekends. I could see he was more relaxed, under less stress than he had been before and it was great! We started doing things together more regularly. We went deep sea fishing 4 or 5 times a year, we went to science fairs, hobby shops and down to the local harbors and checked out sail boats. I was getting to know him, where he came from,

The significance of family commensality within the household is that it is the foundation of the socialisation process. Family meal times are therefore, most significant and beneficiary for the children involved. It acts as one of the events in which parents acculturate their children to everyday norms and values. Meal times are often where

For our Social Norm Project Caitlin Avery and I decided that we would get onto an elevator and press all of the buttons. We choose this experiment because we both are a little bit shy and felt that this experiment would be stepping out of our comfort zone without making either of us feel too uncomfortable. When we conducted this experiment we made sure to get on the elevator when there was a good crowd of people riding (around 10-15 people) and then the two of us pressed all of the buttons until they were all lit. As we rode the elevator we watched to see what the other passenger’s reactions were. Most people did in fact notice that we had pressed every button and had a puzzled expression on their face, but you could tell that they didn’t think much about it and went back to looking at their phone. I did notice a few people who had

For this social norms experiment my group decided to do several things. One experiment we did was to go up to people and ask if they wanted to go to the restroom with us, however on the poster it read, “Let’s get loco at homecoming.” This would cause the person being asked to feel uncomfortable and confused at the same time. One guy said, “Yeah let’s go,” another said “no” and started cursing, and many looked confused and didn’t say much. Two people that were being asked, that knew us, didn’t seem so uncomfortable because they knew we were joking. During this process I did not want to do this because I was scared of what others would think of me. Once I started doing it, I got the hang of it, and didn’t feel so scared anymore. I could feel

The social norm experiment that I performed consisted of me violating a social norm and observing people’s reactions for doing so. I did something that is deemed “not normal,” based off from societal standards. The norm I broke was an interesting one. Instead of respecting strangers’ personal space, I invaded their space. I stood in front of them as close as I could possibly get, without touching them. I choose to break this social norm because of how I am with people. Strangers or friends, it does not matter, I do not like when people stand close to me. I feel as if they are invading my personal space. When people stand too close to me, I tense up and feel very uncomfortable. In my eyes, this social norm is necessary, especially for people who are similar to me and need to have their distance from others.

When you think about your family when you were growing up do you remember being together at mealtime or going off doing your own thing? Where these experiences you would like to carry onto your family or change them. As the years pass we as a society become busier and busier with work obligations, our and our children’s extra curricular activities and trying to keep with the everyday things that need to be done. Sometimes it feels as if there is not enough time to cook a meal and sit down together, or is this something that we have just become accustom to saying? It has also been mentioned that eating out or getting take out saves time and money, but even then are we getting the quality time we need with our families? Does it benefit our families to skip this quality time together?

In my family, when we eat at the dinner table, we talk about our day and build better bonds through our interactions. My mother cooks the meal, my sisters and I set up the table with utensils and place mats and my father is ready to eat. We all sit at the table, no technology, elbows off the table and we give grace. While we eat, we talk about our day or anything exciting has happened and we argue and laugh with each other.

I have spent approximately 5,735 hours sitting at a dinner table with my family. Some of those hours dragged by and some of them ran out in the blink of an eye. Many hours took place around a huge mahogany table that seemed to extend for miles, while others occurred around a tiny folding table, barely big enough to contain the food and conversations being passed above it. However, one of the things that has always stayed that same, no matter the table or the topic of discussion, was the people that sat around it. Family dinner is such a profound time of the day; a time when everyone can come together as one. Throughout all of these years and all of these dinner tables, I have come to learn that relationships are sacred.