Sunday, September 7, 2008

It's weird to think how many unwritten rules there are in society.  Many times we do things without even thinking, follow these rules without ever being told to them.  There are some social norms that we are taught as a child, like not to talk when you have food in your mouth, but not all norms are taught by our parents.  There is an unspoken pressures by society to make people into behaving in a certain way.  Without all theses rules would our society be happier?  People act differently when they are alone; they are able to act without restrictions.  So, without these constrictions would people be more at ease and less worried.  It all stems back to conformity and  wanting people to accept who you are, except people are never truly acting themselves.  And if everyone started acting themselves would we like them more or less?  Could our society handle no norms? 

3 comments:

anita said...

i wouldn't say that when we're around others we're not ourselves. how we act infront of others versus by ourselves is just a reflection of the kind of person we are. we do have pressures to act "normal" infront of people we don't know and once we've become close to them we are able to act like "ourselves" more. i think its because no one wants to be thought of as weird right off the bat because then people will be reluctant to being your friend.

Sal said...

I don't think we could handle no norms - by definition a society has norms. All societies do. But we often don't realize it and that is the weird part but also the fun part that sociology explores.

Annie said...

I couldn't agree more. I think that when people are alone, they just forget about all the restrictions they have when they aren't. Not only do your parents mold you, but your friends do as well. And when you are alone you truly get to be yourself.