Example Of A Social Norm Paper

It is well known that when socializing it is expected of you to look straight ahead and pay attention to the person with eye contact. This norm is used to control people when they are talking to people, as a way of ensuring the said person is paying attention to the conversation. This week when I go to class or when anyone is talking to me I will do everything normally, except look at the person speaking. I will look up at the ceiling or some other fixed point in the room, focusing on it and not looking anywhere else. I believe if I do this people will think I am not interested in the conversation and may become irritated or uncomfortable. They might ask me if I’m listening to them or if I am uninterested in the conversation. Another way …show more content…
Whenever my parents or my brother talked to me I would stare at a wall or somewhere else. My mom is a teacher and she hates when people don’t pay attention so when I was looking elsewhere she would get irritated and tell me to pay attention. I eventually had to tell her what I was doing, because she was getting too angry. My dad didn’t mind much and I kind of felt bad not paying attention. He didn’t once get irritated, he just acted as if there was nothing off about our conversation. When I would look away while talking to my brother, he would punch me in the arm to get my attention again. He wasn’t as irritable though, because he is already used to me ignoring him or looking away when he is …show more content…
I kept feeling the need to make eye contact so I could nod and show that I was paying attention. I probably felt the way I did, because from a young age my parents always told me to pay attention to people when they are talking to me. They always told me it was rude to not look someone in the eye when speaking to them. Some of them reacted the way I expected, I expected my mom to be irritated quickly as well as my brother. However teachers I expected to confront me more about my behavior. I did have some difficulties remembering to not focus on people and to look away from the person speaking. I didn’t have much trouble other than that. From this experiment I learned that not only do people not paying attention as they are supposed to when conversing or sitting in class makes the person conversing with them uncomfortable, but it also makes the one not paying attention