My name is William Oliver and I am a sophomore at the
University of North Georgia. This Blog is for my Exploring Socio-Diversity
class that pertains to the education field. This week we were asked to break a
social norm and observe how others reacted.
For my social norm I decided to say goodbye every time I
answer the phone or answer the phone and remain silent. I chose to break this
norm because it was simple yet held a surprising amount of connotation to a
phone conversation. When answering the phone the appropriate thing to do is
greet your guest on the other line. This is a norm of American culture that
signifies mutual respect and common courtesy for others. When I answered the
phone I received a large amount of reactions. When I answered with goodbye or
nothing at all there was always a large amount of confusion and awkward wait
time. The best reaction that I received was from my grandmother she called me
and I answered with goodbye and she just simply hung up the phone, called back
and said that’s rude and hung up the phone.
I did not see the amount of disrespect a simple word can do until I
received some of the reactions. The hardest part was answering calls from
people outside my immediate family. If
my coworkers or managers called it was extremely awkward to carry on a serious
conversation.
I think this relates to culture because it is said that saying
hello opens the line for communication. This little action put in perspective how
people in American culture value respect and courtesy. People expect that courtesy
should be given to everybody and that it is a required thing. In the American
culture they want people to be civilized and partake in small and large etiquettes.
I believe that if people do not show a meek courtesy of hello they are
instantly judged and perceived as bad-mannered. Overall I found this very thought-provoking
for such a small act.
Thank you for reading,
William Oliver
I have to say, I never would have thought to do this, but it obviously was out of the social norm. I think I would either not know how to react or be a little off-put by this kind of behavior. I find it interesting that your grandmother was the first one to come out and say that she felt it was rude. I think that shows a generational difference and how we see different activities rude or okay.
ReplyDeleteIt's almost comical how something we consider to be so small and insignificant in the big picture of our lives actually allows it to function on a day to day basis. It is common in the South to see everyone say hello, wave and ask after one's family. Whenever you travel up North or outside of the country, people give you the weirdest looks. Why is it important to teach such simple social exchanges to the future generations? Does it promote social order and cohesion or has it just been so engrained in our culture by tradition that we don't know what would happen if we stopped doing it? All in all, great idea and I was really surprised by how much courage a norm like this takes to break.
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