Social Norms Argumentative Essay Example

composure. Some even went as far as apologizing for their hostile reactions towards me, while some were very sorry even to a point of being unable to face me.

Having accomplished my first assignment, I moved on to the second task that is, shaking hands with everyone I came into contact with along the busy street. I started by monitoring the direction that most of the people were moving towards. It was not long before I had my mind set and hence picked the opposite direction so as to meet face to face with as many people as possible. The greatest challenge here was stretching my hand for the very first stranger that I encountered. I was tensed since it was not something that I was accustomed to. I gathered the confidence and sstretched my hand to shake with the first person, unfortunately, he ignored me totally. I got embarrassed but still had to carry on with my mission. The reactions I later received were overwhelmingly mixed up. Some people looked at me with so much surprise, very much visible in the way they stretched their hands. Some even afforded a smile while stretching their hands. My worst embarrassment for the day was yet to come as was eventually manifested in my meeting with my very best friend who in fact thought I had gone nuts. He questioned my conscience behind going about shaking hands with everyone I met. The tension displayed on his faced eased down when I explained to him the cause of my actions.

Social norms are unique in different societies such that when one moves one society to another, he/she has to

be careful not to violate the society’s norms which may not be norms in his own society. It should be understood that the society will not judge you lightly for not endeavoring to learn its norms. The society is always ready to punish anyone violating its norms. It makes it clear for the offender to know that he/she has breached a social norm once he/she does.