I need to break a social norm! Any suggestions?
Posted by weelittlebuddy on Sep 13, 2008 · Member since Oct 2006 · 304 posts
For my sociology class I need to break a social norm and see what other people's reactions are.
Some examples that other students have already done are:
-Picking up the phone and saying "goodbye" instead of "hello"
-Dressing up fancy and bringing candles and a nice tablecloth to a fast food restaurant and eating there.
-Wearing your underwear on the outside of your clothes and going out in public.
-Going to Starbucks are bringing your own coffee maker & making your own coffee at the table.
-Talking to yourself in public.
I can't think of anything that I can do and was hoping someone out there had a good suggestion?
Any suggestions would be much appreciated!!
being vegan. hehe just kidding.
take a nice wicker basket to the grocery store instead of using theirs
in high school, my friend and i switched clothes for a day. i usually wore plaid mini skirts, homemade shirts, liberty spikes, rainbow or plaid chucks... annnyways. she wanted to see what it would be like to dress like me. so she borrowed a normal outfit from me, put some pink stripes in her hair instead of wearing liberty spikes and went to the mall. she said she got a lot of weird stares and some clerks even followed her around!!! this girl was in the yearbook, magazine, and morning announcements. she was one of the best students, just a sweetheart and just by changing her clothes created a very different reaction from strangers. she wrote about it in our newspaper. anyways. it was really interesting. as for me. i just went to school dressed like her, i didnt get any weird reactions other than "why are you wearing that?" heh.
Fart in public..loudly.
I'm afraid that I would be sorely attempted to tell the professor (in front of the class) that I don't like the assingment and have no intention of doing it. That's a big social norm that not many students break! ;)
I guess I have an overdeveloped sense of mischief. ;D
What about the old Seinfeld gag... Say something strange when someone sneezes. (I think they used 'you are sooooo good lookin'!'
That's normal.
Scratch yourself then smell your fingers.
Burst out in song and dance at random times
Work popular song lyrics in to everyday conversation; as in
Friend:" Have you thought about what you want for your birthday?"
You: " You know what I want, what I really really want? I wanna really really really wanna zig a zag ah!"
"Do" an accent or celebrity impersonation all day without breaking character.
in high school i used to have people walk me on a leash and collar , that definitely got a wide mix of reaction. or you could just hand in a blank piece of paper thats what my husband did in his soc class and he passed :-D
One day last week at my school the line at the girl's bathroom was waaaay too long, going out the door and around the corner of where the bathrooms are. We have like 3 minutes between classes, and my next class was on the other side of the school from there, so I said "screw this" and went into the boy's bathroom (where there is no line of idiotic girls waiting for a space at the mirror) and used it. I got weird stares coming out. Maybe it would have been a little more stealthy if I had a boy haircut or something, or was wearing pants, but my hair is down to my waist and I was wearing a dress. Hahahaha. I totally didn't give a damn, I accomplished my mission and I was happy.
one time just for fun, not for a class, i was out (ok, at a bar drinking in college) and i was making a strange face all night pretending that that's how my face was. it was sort of an experiment to see if people would still talk to me or if they would just stare at me.
I ended up meeting a really great guy that night and he was my bf for a couple of years after that. i think he liked the idea of my experiment. ::)
when i explained what i was doing later, his friend, who was great too, said he was doing the same thing with his ears. his ears were actually deformed a little (they looked like they were chopped off on the tops). i was rolling! :-D
i will try to think of something...this is right up my alley!
Here's an easy one: as you walk around, greet strangers you pass. Where I used to live everyone said hello to each other, where I live now strangers avoid eye contact. It's the strangest thing.
being vegan. hehe just kidding.
take a nice wicker basket to the grocery store instead of using theirs
in high school, my friend and i switched clothes for a day. i usually wore plaid mini skirts, homemade shirts, liberty spikes, rainbow or plaid chucks... annnyways. she wanted to see what it would be like to dress like me. so she borrowed a normal outfit from me, put some pink stripes in her hair instead of wearing liberty spikes and went to the mall. she said she got a lot of weird stares and some clerks even followed her around!!! this girl was in the yearbook, magazine, and morning announcements. she was one of the best students, just a sweetheart and just by changing her clothes created a very different reaction from strangers. she wrote about it in our newspaper. anyways. it was really interesting. as for me. i just went to school dressed like her, i didnt get any weird reactions other than "why are you wearing that?" heh.
I just googled liberty spikes.....lol
When someone asks how you are today, respond: "Dying." They will do a panicky doubletake and ask all kinds of "WHY??" questions. You coolly respond, "So are you. We're all dying, from the moment we are born."
I did this all the time with smarmy highschool teachers.
heh, that's a good one, Yabbit! and so true, too...
Along those lines, here's something I do all the time: When someone asks "what's up?" or "how are you?" as a greeting (where they're probably expecting the customary, quick "good!" from you), respond with something true but unconventionally particular....like I'll say, "hm, I'm kind of tired, a bit sore from work, but happily looking forward to tonight's date with the bathtub" Or something simple, like "I'm a little itchy."
An honest tone is crucial for this. again, it needn't be a lie, so it's not like they should see it as a joke.
ALSO: just google or look up performance art on youtube. There are some improv/performance groups who do public, interactive art that can also serve as a social experiment. I can't think of any names right now, but it's easy to find online.
Go to a coffee shop with something to read and read it out loud instead of silently.
Go to a thrift and get some old style pants and wear them pulled up really high-like almost up to your chest! And tuck your shirt in.
Eat a meal without using silverware-or better yet, without using your hands at all!
In college, there was this guy who used to walk around campus with headphones on singing super loudly, and dancing wildly. I was convinced he was doing a socialogical experiment. He did this the whole 4 years I was there though, and now I wonder if he's still there!
I actually dreamed about this assignment last night....it was pretty funny!
We talked about this sort of thing in one of my psychology classes. Our professor had us watch this episode of You're On Candid Camera where every time this guy gets into an elevator he faces the back of the elevator instead of getting in and facing the doors. It's funny because it makes almost everybody else in the elevator turn around too, like they think he knows something they don't.
I think a woman making rude, sexist, unacceptable and degrading comments to men tops my list.
Go to the bathroom display in Home Depot and actually using the toilet on display. (Do a #2 to maximise the shock value)
During a quiet moment in another class, like if they're all doing a worksheet activity or something, stand up and yell, "Why is everyone looking at me?" And then sit down and resume, as if nothing had ever happened.
Or, if you have access to train/subway, you need a partner for this one. Male partner of skit sits down quietly. Female partner comes in (from platform or another car), slaps him in the face and demands: "Do you know you are the father of my unborn child?"
That isn't as effective as it was 20 years ago, but you can try.
U-Tube "Dom Jolly" for some other idea's.
He is a British comedian who set's up the public with his out of the norm characters.
one i like was that you color your hair a strange color and just go about your life as normal - minus the green/pink/etc hair. hair color is normative.
I can attest to people treating you different with colored hair. When my hair was pink I was ignored a lot.
Go to the bathroom display in Home Depot and actually using the toilet on display. (Do a #2 to maximise the shock value)
This reminds me of a lesson my dad learned the hard way to put on the list of "places not to visit with a potty training toddler"
Pages