Finding Social Norms

Marielle Jankowski

Sociology

Professor Tao

15 September, 2014

Within the hustle and bustle of the city people live life at a quick pace and don’t pay much attention to others around them. Most keep their heads down acting as if they are the only ones on the sidewalk; while just get trying to get from place to place as fast as possible. In my experiment I wanted to see if it was possible for me to break this social norm of inconsiderate and unsociability of most of the people in Hoboken. So I came up with the idea to walk down the most hectic and populated street in Hoboken, Washington Street, and say hello to everyone I passed. Before I completed my experiment, I came up with a little prediction of my own. I felt as though with the swiftness of Hoboken most individuals would disregard me all together. Most people that reside in the area of Hoboken are very busy, coming to and from work in the city, so I felt as though those would be the people to ignore me. While people that were visiting and touring Hoboken would be the ones to say hello back and be obliged for a welcoming hello from a stranger.

I violated this norm of harsh and unfriendliness of the city because I wanted to see all the different reactions I would get. The reaction received would depend on countless components and factors, starting with each person’s availability, personality and background. My experiment started off as I walked down Eighth Street, it was a Wednesday afternoon before most people would get home from work so it was not as busy as I imagined but it really made the interactions with the individuals memorable for me. As I took that intimidating left on to Washington Street I ran in to several people immediately, as I imagined, condescending looks were thrown my way, looks as though I myself was not a resident of Hoboken, as though I did not belong. My experiment continued and as did I, my fear grew in measures after those first few encounters, as I kept walking while my anxiety...