From the things as personal as our religious practices, to our public workplaces, our lives revolve around the beliefs and norms that are imposed on us without our knowledge. French Sociologist, Émile Durkheim (1964), explains that the vast majority of our thoughts and behaviors are not actually our own. In reality, the ways in which we “choose” to live our lives are actually dependent on societal conventions. Thus, conformity to and deviance from social expectations are the result of one’s desire to prove their humanity. People who conform do so in order to be perceived as “normal” because normality is seen as sign of humanity. On the other hand, people who deviate from the norm do so when they feel as though they are being dehumanized because
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According to Charon(1998), as human beings we are defined by our social and cultural nature. In other words, every aspect of our identity is shaped by our social interactions with the people around us (i.e. parents, teachers, religious leaders, media) and the culture that we all share. What is more, our socialization and social life are dependent on culture because culture separates people into groups and shapes our prospective view of the world. Charon emphasizes the human dependence on social interaction when he writes, “We are constantly social actors: we impress others, communicate to others, escape others, con others, try to influence others, watch others entertain, display affection to others, play music or create art for others, and so on”(1998:41). Simply put, our lives revolve around how “others” react to us and how we react to them. The “other” dictates who we are and how we express our identities; this makes us nothing but “actors” who thrive off of the feedback we get from the people around us. It is important to note that in Charon’s description of humans as social actors, he does not distinguish between actions that society deems “good” or “bad.” Rather, he simply focuses on actions that have results in order to emphasize that whether we conform to social expectations by “[impressing] others” or deviate by “[conning] others,” our actions naturally prove our
According to Charon(1998), as human beings we are defined by our social and cultural nature. In other words, every aspect of our identity is shaped by our social interactions with the people around us (i.e. parents, teachers, religious leaders, media) and the culture that we all share. What is more, our socialization and social life are dependent on culture because culture separates people into groups and shapes our prospective view of the world. Charon emphasizes the human dependence on social interaction when he writes, “We are constantly social actors: we impress others, communicate to others, escape others, con others, try to influence others, watch others entertain, display affection to others, play music or create art for others, and so on”(1998:41). Simply put, our lives revolve around how “others” react to us and how we react to them. The “other” dictates who we are and how we express our identities; this makes us nothing but “actors” who thrive off of the feedback we get from the people around us. It is important to note that in Charon’s description of humans as social actors, he does not distinguish between actions that society deems “good” or “bad.” Rather, he simply focuses on actions that have results in order to emphasize that whether we conform to social expectations by “[impressing] others” or deviate by “[conning] others,” our actions naturally prove our