Several times a week, I like to go running through the park. Though some days are more crowded than others, I usually run past a few people walking or riding a bike on the other half of the sidewalk. I am a shy person, but I do smile, wave, and say hello to these people I pass on my runs. Common courtesy. In such close proximity, you would think that every person I greet would return the salutation. But, alas, this is not always so. More than half the people I acknowledge in public fail to respond. Some just ignore me, while others reject me by breaking accidental eye contact. Some seem caught off guard by my unexpected friendliness, dropping their jaws though still not responding. Have these become the normal responses to every day attempts at human interaction? Is it so abnormal to exhibit “common” courtesy? For every unaccepted greeting, we are that much closer to becoming an uncivilized and desensitized people.
“Hi.” I smile, raising my hand in acknowledgement of whomever I pass. A man receiving my gesture falters in his step. A woman’s eyes widen in distrust. “Stay away from me...
... you see someone. But having a few laughs about what you just did because you looked ridiculous doing it, is all apart of life! I live by the motto that life is suppose to be fun. It shouldn’t be all serious and work. You need to have a little time for adventure as well. Some things can be a little strange, such as eating with your hands, but hopefully that person you are with has a good attitude about it and will just go along with it all. Social norms can be a good and bad thing. They are good, because the keep everything in line and makes sure that humans are acting accordingly in their daily activities. But they also can be bad because it puts pressure on everyone's perception of what freedom is and what is acceptable or not. Social norms will always have a controlling impact on the behavior of individuals, occasionally developing them into a new form of person.
They would of rather walked into the grass then break the social norm of walking on the right side of me as I walked passed. The harshest reaction that I got was when I was shouldered from a guy that did not agree with the way I was breaking the social norms. I was walking and he was not going to walk around me as I walked passed him. He lowered his shoulder and let me have it. It was a more aggressive sanction but still a sanction that I got the message from. His mechanics of social control were more violent than expected but he did get is point across. He was proving that walking on that side of the side walk was wrong and not to do it. Other people that I walked past seemed to not know how to react. They were very surprised and tripped all over themselves as I walked by. They did not expect someone to be walking on that side of the sidewalk, by them not knowing how to react reinforced the idea that few people walked on that side of the sidewalk facing that direction. My favorite reaction that I got was when someone followed me onto the opposite side of the sidewalk, they seemed to agree
Because of his cultural and racial background, this gentleman was not hesitant to engage in a conversation. He happily shook my hand and it took him a while to step back because I was gradually standing closer and
To violate a social norm, i will be greeting strangers in a nontraditional way. This norm acts as a mechanism of social control by getting people to give an approved reaction to meeting strangers. It allows us to be friendly without getting too personal. Normally when we greet a stranger we say something along the lines of, “Hello, how are you?”, and the other person responds by saying something like, “Good, how about you?”. Instead I will respond by giving them some unusual greetings to break this social norm.
"It's okay, I'm Seth. I don't think I've seen you around here before." He had an easy smile on his face as he held out his hand for me to shake.
Politeness is known as a courteous manner that displays respects, show deference in society where people live and communicate together (OED online). Furthermore, according to Brown and Levinson (19780, politeness theory is the speaker’s expressions use toward receiver in soft manner of Face Threaten Acts (FTAs) to saving face of addressees. There are four main strategies in politeness theory as: bald-on record, positive politeness, negative politeness and off record. Bald- on record, a type is commonly with people known each other very well and very comfortable in their environment, is reduce the impact of FTAs. Off record is removing the speakers from any imposition whatsoever (Zhan, 1992). “Positive politeness is redress directed to addressee’s positive face” (Brown and Levinson, 1978, p. 101), while negative politeness is making a request less intrude into a person’s private.
One big implicit social norm involves personal space. In our society it is implicitly know that you give people enough space when waiting in line or when sitting next to them as not to invade their personal bubble. I thought it would be particularly interesting to see what people did the moment you crossed that “bubble line.” Periodically throughout the day I would intrude upon people’s bubbles. For varied results, this occurred in classrooms, the elevator, the lunch line, the lunch table, and at work. During classes and at lunch I would move my chair really close to that of the person next to me. While in the lunch line and in the elevator I would stand really close to the person, even if there was plenty of space to spread out. At work, again I stood really close to the person when talking to them.
“You don’t know me.” My voice sounded as unsteady as his stance. He shrugged as he chuckled; the laughter turned my blood cold. He seemed to know something I did not.
In the Grenadian culture, everyone is greeted the same way however, in the Nigerian culture their greetings are very symbolic. Because in the Nigerian culture, one’s age and social status demands respect. Whenever you meet an elderly man or woman, you must greet them in a particular way; you extend your hands to them and bow your heads. Also, you must take time to ask about their health and well-being. Because, rushing a greeting is considered as being rude. Unlike the Grenadian culture, there is no set way in which we should greet anyone, furthermore, greeting people is a matter of choice. One can choose to greet or not to greet anyone, either way it can be considered as being
Each time I went to speak, I was overwhelmed with the possibility that I would get a negative response. After about 10 minutes of participating in this behavior, however, I realized that I was getting a handful of relatively the same reactions. People would either unenthusiastically say hello back, not say anything but smile, completely ignore me, or do a double take, looking around with a confused face to see if I was talking to somebody else. These reactions did not surprise me, because if I was in their shoes, I am sure I would have responded the same way. Starting at a young age, many of us are taught by our parents or other adult figures in our lives, not to talk to strangers because it could be dangerous. That being said, we usually do not expect strangers to randomly approach us either, and are caught off guard when they do so in situations outside of the normal
Today’s society is filled with many social classes and groups each containing their own social norms for the members of that group. Although these norms are apparent within the group, new individuals who join the group must learn and adapt to fit in. Because of this, being able to adapt to new social norms is important as every individual will encounter a situation where these norms differ significantly. Individuals are then faced with a decision to conform to the group’s norms by bending their own, or they can maintain their ideals which can result in stigmatization against them by the other group members. This leads to self-conflict within the individual, the outcome of which can be identity ambivalence. In the piece “Making it by Faking
Chivalry is the combination of qualities expected of an ideal knight, especially courage, honor, courtesy, justice, and a readiness to help the weak. In today’s society, people do not have a concept what chivalry is. Today there are people being killed every hour because someone doesn’t like what someone else said, for example, there was a shooting in Chicago on November 21st, 2016. Nine people were dead, leaving nineteen wounded. The gunmen were sixteen and seventeen-year-old boys.
...et others with a smile or a nod, and then they would face the door. In comparison, I would suggest that these results are in fact due to culture differences. More precisely, foreigners did not want to look at others intentionally in the elevator out of respect for not only their personal space but my own, and Americans seemed to want to greet first to completely eradicate the awkward circumstances when people make accidental eye contact, though they still avoid face to face confrontation afterward.
“Do I know you?” asked the Wise Man, not sure how to proceed in the context of that conversation.
hello. I smile back at her and ask what she's been up to. But I don't even