Giving Reason to Social Norms and Practices

Have you ever experienced or felt like something wrong or unreasonable was done and it seemed ok with the society because of a certain social or cultural norm or practice?

I just bought a new pair of leather shoes. They weren’t really expensive ones… ok they were cheap. But it’s been a while since I had a new pair and it made me feel good that at least I can stop wearing my old worn-out shoes.

I went to school the following day happy because of my new shoes and I excitedly showed them to a group of my classmates. One of them immediately shouted, “NEW SHOES!!”, and suddenly out of nowhere, almost all of my classmates went to me and stepped on my feet. They were all trying to step on my new shoes. Some even are not just stepping on it once, but many times. Some even really hurt – A LOT.

After all was over, I was left with sore feet and shoes that were already damaged and dirty. I promised myself… never again. I was 13 years old then.

 

The Sky is a Crybaby by hypertypos

Now all of you might be wondering why the heck did they step on my feet? Yes they were because of my new shoes – But why?

It’s because stepping on my new shoes is supposed to protect me from blisters on my feet brought about by the shoes. It’s a social practice; A cultural norm in our country.

In itself, that social practice is good. The end justified the means (assuming that the practice does protect me from blisters). But society interpreted it or used it in a way that doesn’t make sense already. When you look at my situation what they did was not right and downright inappropriate.

For one, the social norm or practice is really not stepping on a person’s foot. It’s enough to lightly tap the feet of the person wearing the new shoes.

So what then compels these people to step on my shoes like there was no tomorrow?

1. Justifying bad or wrong actions

Some of them I’m sure were envious of my new shoes. Let’s face it; it’s only natural to sometimes feel a little envy when someone has something we don’t have. And if we can’t have that something, we resort to other courses of action to feel better – to not feel envy.

In their case they tried abusing our social practice by really stepping on my shoe. By trying to really dirty them; by putting their whole shoe on top of mine.

 

2. Going with the Flow

I tried to ask most of them why they stepped on my shoes, and they just plain told me “Because it’s new!” They said that happily without guilt and like it was the most right thing to do.

I asked them a second time because I wasn’t going to accept that answer, and a lot of them told me “Because it’s new!”, “Yeah, because it’s new!”

I asked them a third time and now explicitly asked them – “why step on someone’s new shoes?” They told me again “Because it’s new!”

This only goes to prove that some if not most social practices are being done without people even knowing why it’s being done in the first place. We’ve just been doing it because everybody’s doing it. We don’t even bother to ask why it’s being done and what good that social practice does for us.

If there’s any reason on why social practices are there in the first place is that they were put there to do some good. We don’t do something without even knowing the reason why.

 

Social Practices and Cultural Norms are big and diverse subjects. Some practices are supposed to be guides for people so they always do the right thing. Some are supposed to make our lives easier. Some old practices are supposed to bring us good luck.

Whatever is the reason, I always try to make sure that whatever I’m doing, be it a social norm or not, is for the good of someone or myself, and I am not hurting or harming anyone in the process.