When choosing a social norm to violate, I wanted to aim for something that would be immediately apparent to those around me. Generally, I consider myself to be a rather quiet and reserved person. I 'm also very shy and softspoken and a little timid when it comes to talking to new people or around large groups. Because of this, I decided that I wanted to throw myself out of my comfort zone and attempt to be, for lack of a better word, obnoxious while with friends. It was an awkward day, but the reactions I received from my peers taught me a lot about social norms whilst also about myself and the influence of social norms on myself. My friends and I who live on campus, about seven of us, regularly get together to eat at different points during …show more content…
As for my two male friends who were in attendance, it was almost as if they didn 't even notice anything was off, even though I would interrupt them multiple times. This pattern of behavior from my male friends made me uncomfortable, because it was almost as if they didn 't notice that this type of behavior was entirely out of my normal demeanor that they 've known for years. I did note although, that as the night went on some of my female and male friends were talking less than they normally would. I tried to suppress my own feelings as much as possible for the sake of the experiment, but I was extremely anxious the entire time. I would feel more and more guilty each time one of my friends would stop talking on account of me interrupting. Also, I would catch myself going to apologize after being what one could consider to be too loud, or talking about myself too much. However, I took these feelings in stride and realized it was a part of the assignment and I was learning something by feeling what I …show more content…
It made me realize that whether I know it or not, when it comes to how I behave, I 'm most often thinking about what the social norm is in a certain situation. Not that this is a negative thing, but it 's interesting that these norms are not something anyone is born knowing, but something that is taught from birth. Social norms influence most of our daily interactions with others, and it 's also very intriguing seeing how others react when these norms are broken and someone acts out of the