Essay On Norm Violation

Words: 528
Pages: 3

For my norm violation I spent a few hours while shopping and running errands loudly popping my gum. I chose this because it is something that really annoys me and I avoid doing it even when I am alone. To me, this is something that is an intrusion upon personal boundaries because the sound is so abrupt and invasive. It is definitely a folkway because it is social etiquette to not obnoxiously pop your gum but not an important or punishable offense. As a mechanism of social control I would say this norm generally keeps people from being obnoxious.
I went to three places while doing this: Barnes & Noble, Ulta, and TJ Maxx. What I did was straightforward, I simply went about shopping and doing what I would normally do while I loudly popped my gum. I had expected people to give me dirty looks and for a few braver people to ask me to stop, but nobody said anything to me. Some people gave me dirty looks, others flinched at the repeated sound, a few ignored me, and a fair
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I don’t like to have other’s attention focused solely on me and I’m a quiet person so this was an uncomfortable experience . Also, the sound of popping gum grates my ears so I was on edge the whole time. I feel that I felt the way I did not only because of the two reasons I just mentioned but also because popping gum is something that my family taught my brothers and I not to do. It is something that is not taboo but is frowned upon. Additionally, I feel that because the norms themselves are taught to people at such a young age to exercise social control, people do not know how to react to them being broken. Nobody felt that they should or could say anything to me and instead removed themselves from the situation or kept silent even though they were clearly frustrated. It was as if they wanted to avoid any type of confrontation. People seemed to be just as uncomfortable with the idea of telling me that I should stop as they were with what I was