Introduction
Human society has expectations for behavior that becomes its shared culture. The implicit social norms get communicated to generations at an early age and have a strong influence on the behavior up to adulthood. These social norms govern the culture. They are therefore implicit or explicit regulations an individual segment has for morally acceptable behaviors, beliefs and values of its members. For instance, people’s view of the norms significantly influences the behavior. Implicit social norms get stated openly, but one discovers them the moment they disobey. The implicit moral rules are laws people conform to in the society, and usually these laws make a living as a group more comfortable.
Brushing My Teeth at the Table in the Restaurant
Brushing of teeth is usually what many people get surprised when they see it. Almost every facet of people condemns this behavior and mostly and they usually never think that it can get done in public places like the restaurant. This type of behavior gets observed as awkwardness or complete lack of reasoning. In many situations it occurs it attracts attention as well as a surprise to those around the norm violator. The society, therefore, does not expect a person to brush his or her teeth in the public restaurant places.
Reason for Choosing Brushing Teeth at the Table of the Restaurant
While I was looking for glue on norm to violate, my thinking ran to a less risky rule to violate. I discovered the idea to brush the teeth at the restaurant table. In many public places and all people get discouraged from brushing teeth at the table public places or in the meal time. It is again unethical in government offices. The significant reason to choose this norm to violate was that it did not posses rough responses like getting beaten and; therefore, I was sure that I was not risking to get injured through people’s reactions. My other reason for adopting this type of norm violation as my study topic was that the public totally does not expect mature people to do it.
I wanted to violate it at the restaurant table to see how people around me react since the act was something that a conventional society do not expect anybody to do. My option of violating the norm of brushing the teeth at the restaurant was at luncheon of our graduation day in Villa Park restaurant. I waited until when my college mates were at the table having their delicious lunch. I ate quickly and finished the first one so that I could get their attention. We were over fifty at the table. The rest of my colleagues had gathered with smiling faces of academic transition. Since my plan was to get executed, I was sure and execrated adverse reactions to emanate from them. I was also sure that someone’s appetite would get lost
Reaction before Brushing the Teeth
When the time came for my plan execution, at first, I felt a bit nervous since the new fear that was developing in me would temper with my norm violation. I breathed deeply, stood and pulled my back. My friends at the table were surprised to see me eating in two minutes. Their eyes got focused on my unusualness. I took my tooth passed smeared it on my toothbrush with fingers and started brushing while my friend was eating. At the time of splitting the foam, I felt high since I was aware that every person present got focused on me never focused on me. I felt like day dreaming. I did not imagine I had the valor of doing it publicly.
Reaction of people during and after Brushing the Teeth
My friends and other people around got irritated. They clicked, and while others almost vomited the food they had eaten. My friends threw abuses at me. People stared at me with mouths agape. I could see young ladies silently pointing to each other to see what I was doing. I could see wrinkles of furious faces directed to me. If I were young, I could have faced the music. A small number of my friends broke into laughter. I heard people arguing that I had grown mad. ‘This is the effect of the use of bhang among university students,’ said one old woman who sat at the nearby table. Are you serious? Don’t be stupid, idiot were the words directed to me. It realized that minor norm violation has a discomforting effect on people around.
After violating the norm, I learned that fundamental standards in our society negatively affect those around us. A part of learning that I had ashamed myself, I had also ashamed my friends and other people in the hotel who were celebrating their graduation. I heard the abuses coming from even my closest friends. I hurriedly left the restaurant with my friends avoiding me. They stared at me as if I was the devils incarnate. At this point, I learned lot about social control. I discovered that norms were reinforced through approval while condemned through disapproval. The support promotes behavior and contrary, disapproval like the abuses I received; friends were clicking and people associating me with drugs are ways of behavioral controls in our society.
Lesson Learned about Norms and Social Control
Norm violation leads an indigent public image and the self-image. When a rule gets violated in the society, people react to it in a different manner. Their reactions usually get directed to discouraging the individual acts. For instance, my friend and the old lady in the restaurant reacted negatively to discourage me from such behavior.
Two, our society have control, but on the other hand, there is a group in the society that promotes norm violation through approving socially inappropriate behavior. For my case, some the friends broke into laughter and chanted at me. These kinds of reaction act as negative behavior reinforcement.
The other lesson from this norm violation is that norm violation in most cases does not attract legal penalties but negative social responses. Norms also aim at making those around us comfortable. In conclusion, rules play a critical role in shaping the behavior of the society. Members of the community have the responsibility in social control. Norms are therefore important in the society because they control human relationships. Approval and disapproval are the key controls in the society that promote societal norms that are the foundation of morality.