In our society there are many societal rules. There are many situations that we face that we just “learn” how to handle. These rules are not written down or enforced; or are they? I decided to test a couple of social norms that we do not challenge in our society and take for granted.
At the grocery store I decided to shop out of some other shopper’s carts. I did it to four shoppers before leaving the store. One woman had a jar of peanut butter in the smaller part of the cart and as I was walking by I said to myself “oh, we need peanut butter,” and quickly grabbed it out of her cart and kept walking past her before she could say anything. This was my first attempt and I was embarrassed which is why I didn’t want to look at the woman. After this I decided that I needed to do it to someone who was directly looking at me. The next person I saw with a cart was a man and he was walking past me and I grabbed a loaf of bread out of his cart. He stopped and asked me “What are you doing?” I told him that I was shopping. He said, “Yeah, well that’s mine.” I responded by telling him that technically it wasn’t his because he hadn’t paid for it yet. He grabbed it back out of my cart and followed by saying “and neither have you,” and then walked away. The other two people didn’t take their items back but they did ask what I was doing and one even told me that I was crazy. After this I left the store because I was too embarrassed to keep shopping.
What I was doing was malicious intent. I was purposely doing things that were out of the social norm to try and make people lose face, however, I feel more like I was losing face, which is why I left without finishing my shopping. I think of myself as a nice, respectable person. I know that was I was doing was wrong because we just grow up our whole lives shopping that we shop in the store and not out of people’s carts. When we break these social norms people become uncomfortable. I believe that the people’s carts that I was shopping out of were probably very uncomfortable and they did not know how to react, which is why they called me crazy and took their stuff back from me. I was also extremely embarrassed when I was doing this because I knew that it wasn’t “normal.” And no one likes to be the “weirdo” that is shopping out of other people’s carts. I think that when the last person called me crazy it really made me feel out of place because the reason they were calling me crazy was because I was doing something that was not normal and when you are told that you are not normal it just makes you feel like you do not belong. I think that if I had someone with me it would have been less embarrassing.
At the grocery store I decided to shop out of some other shopper’s carts. I did it to four shoppers before leaving the store. One woman had a jar of peanut butter in the smaller part of the cart and as I was walking by I said to myself “oh, we need peanut butter,” and quickly grabbed it out of her cart and kept walking past her before she could say anything. This was my first attempt and I was embarrassed which is why I didn’t want to look at the woman. After this I decided that I needed to do it to someone who was directly looking at me. The next person I saw with a cart was a man and he was walking past me and I grabbed a loaf of bread out of his cart. He stopped and asked me “What are you doing?” I told him that I was shopping. He said, “Yeah, well that’s mine.” I responded by telling him that technically it wasn’t his because he hadn’t paid for it yet. He grabbed it back out of my cart and followed by saying “and neither have you,” and then walked away. The other two people didn’t take their items back but they did ask what I was doing and one even told me that I was crazy. After this I left the store because I was too embarrassed to keep shopping.
What I was doing was malicious intent. I was purposely doing things that were out of the social norm to try and make people lose face, however, I feel more like I was losing face, which is why I left without finishing my shopping. I think of myself as a nice, respectable person. I know that was I was doing was wrong because we just grow up our whole lives shopping that we shop in the store and not out of people’s carts. When we break these social norms people become uncomfortable. I believe that the people’s carts that I was shopping out of were probably very uncomfortable and they did not know how to react, which is why they called me crazy and took their stuff back from me. I was also extremely embarrassed when I was doing this because I knew that it wasn’t “normal.” And no one likes to be the “weirdo” that is shopping out of other people’s carts. I think that when the last person called me crazy it really made me feel out of place because the reason they were calling me crazy was because I was doing something that was not normal and when you are told that you are not normal it just makes you feel like you do not belong. I think that if I had someone with me it would have been less embarrassing.