Welcome to our class blog! This blog is designed to help link our study of sociology with everyday experiences. Thoughtful comments are always welcomed and appreciated.
Norms are unwritten rules that the culture of a society goes by, like shoes going on one's feet or walking forward. Two types of norms are folkways, which are standard customs that are socially approved , but not morally significant and mores, or norms of morality.
Below shows what happens when a folkway is disrupted and when a more is not followed.
The first video is a girl riding a shopping cart in a store. Now while this isn't against the law, it's still not normal. SHOPPING
The next video shows an immoral disruption, flatulence.
A GAS
When the girl was riding the shopping cart, one could say it wasn't serious. But when someone passed gas in the other video during the meeting, it caused more a more comical reaction.
The final result of these two unwritten rules being broken resulted in either being excused or publicly noticed.So if you want to keep out of the public eye, follow the rules.
There are subcultures all around, whether you notice or not. A subculture is a segment of society that shares a distinctive pattern of mores, folkways, and values that differs from the pattern of the larger society.Basically, it can be thought as a culture existing within a larger, dominant culture. While trying to figure out what subculture to choose because there are so many, I narrowed it down to Chinatown.
Many people of subcultures often live by the dominant culture, but also at the same time doing and engaging in different forms of behavior. While walking around Chinatown, I notice that the citizens that spend time there are very active in the dominant culture but I realize that having something that not everyone can't relate to is a good thing. I seen a lot of things that I would have never imagine. Living in Philly, when you think about food the first thing that comes to mind are cheesesteaks and pretzels, but in Chinatown, roasted duck and sushi are those things. I believe that this is a subculture because you can go right to 10 and Filbert and see the difference in trents and lifestlyes and how it is different from the outside community. Once you enter into Chinatown you instanly notice their unique peculair culture from the died ducks hanging from the windows, to the homeland artifacts that decorate the scenery. The streets of Chinatown came with an array of smells and sounds that you would never see or smell in the dominant culture.
Chinese delacicies range from cow bronchial tubes served fried, turtle served within a soup, and bbq-ued duck. Some of these dining customs may seem bizarre to the dominant ideolgy but to the chinese culture these types of food are in fact their norms. If you are interested in knowing some of the common dishes found amongst this lively subculture check out this interesting menu.
In conclusion, I must say that doing this blog really open my eyes to see things from other people perspective. I now wonder how other people view my subcultures. Whether it is a sport team, religious beliefs, and/ or living community that all of these things makeup are dominant culture and give it that special whole feeling.
In sociology courses, students learn about social norms. Social norms are actions and behaviors that are common and accepted in a society. For something to be a norm it has to be widely accepted and understood by the society. For example, giving up your seat on a public bus to an elderly person is considered a social norm. The action is known to many people in our society, and it is understood be to be the kind a generous thing to do.
Norms can be described in four ways. First norms are described asformal or informal. Formal norms describe appropriate behavior, and have a punishment if a person acts inappropriately. These kinds of norms are usually written down, and include the laws of our society. Shoplifting is a type of formal norm, because it is considered illegal and there a consequences which can include jail time or fines.
Informal norms are behaviors that many people are aware off and try to do, but do not have consequences if the norm is broken. For example, in our society it is considered polite to hold the door open for other people, and a large amount of people do hold door for other. However, other people do not, and while it is rude, there is no consequence of not following the norm.
Norms are also described in their importance to society. When describing norms in this way, they can be called mores or folkways. Mores are norms that many people identify with and considered necessary for the society to survive because they are actions many people either cherish or are against. Each society wants to follow their mores, so very often mores are formal norms. Murder and child abuse are both examples of mores.
Folkways are norms that control our everyday behavior. Folkways are important because they shape they shape how to people in a society behave. However, if these norms are broken few people will be concerned because these norms simply govern our everyday actions. Walking up the up escalator in a tore for example is a folkway. However, if someone walks down the up folkway it is an annoyance and breaks to norm, but will not result in anything negative such as being arrested.
In this clip from Californication, one observes the breaking of a social norm. In the clip, one gentleman answers his cellphone in the middle of a movie, and begins talking loudly to his girlfriend. This of course annoys his fellow movie goers, and makes sit difficult for anyone to enjoy the movie. A fight breaks out between the cellphone user, and another man in the audience, resulting in the cellphone user being punched and knocked out. Once the cellphone user is knocked out, the audience claps for the other man because he took care of the norm breaker, and they can all go back to enjoying the movie.
This clip is an example of social norms, because even though there is no law forbidding cellphone usage in movie theaters, it is a common practice for people to silence their phones while watching a movie. Because of the lack of consequences, talking on your phone while in a movie theater would be considered an informal and folkway norm.
Norms are a large part of our society because they govern the way we act, and so many of us follow them. Many of our daily behaviors such as tipping waiters at restaurants, waiting in line, and dressing appropriately for a job interview are social norms that we learned and apply to our daily lives without thinking about them.
