Breaking Social Norm Essay

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Today, in our current society, there are many social norms. The definition of a social norm is the rules or guidelines that are established or accepted to be normal in a society and if you do not comply with these rules than you may face a consequence of being rejected or neglected. In my case, that consequence would be the feelings of uncomfortable and awkward. I decided to break the social norm of giving people space. I picked invading people’s personal space because it pushed me out of my comfort zone and I really wanted to know what people’s reactions would be. Ever since a young age, I was taught about stranger danger; I was also being taught about personal boundaries and respecting people’s personal space. My mom taught me that everyone …show more content…
I did this two different times and each time the person’s reactions were different. During the first trial I went and sat very close to a girl who was studying in the library. She turned and looked at my very confused and annoyed since there were many chairs available in the library for me to sit in but she didn’t say anything: probably because we were on a silent floor. So she started to pack all her studying materials into her backpack but before she knew it I was gone. I did not want to stick around any longer since I was already extremely embarrassed. I imagine she felt awkward as well. In my last and final trial, because I will never be doing this again, I went to the student union and stood shoulder to shoulder next to a boy in line at Panda Express. He turned and looked at me and said, “what’s up?” I was already extremely embarrassed, my first thought was to walk away and hope to never run into him again. And that is exactly what I did. I imagine the boy was very confused as I heard him laugh awkwardly when I walked away. As I broke this social norm I found it very interesting that when I invaded space of those two college students, they both had very different reactions but I believe they both felt awkward and confused. One decided to leave when the other tried to make conversation. What I did not realize before completing this social experiment is that all people have
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