18 Social Norms That Not Everyone Agrees With Today
I’ve been alive long enough to watch things that were once unheard of transform into social norms. Have you? Some are for the better. For example, public smoking was once the norm.
From airports to McDonalds, it was normal, and those days are long gone. However, many new social norms aren’t something we’ve all gotten on board with. A recent online survey brings awareness to these social norms that some of us can live without. Do you agree?
1. Ads for Betting and Sports Book Platforms
Has anyone noticed that the National Football League (NFL) has become one big ad for gambling? It’s scary. The NFL partners with several online sportsbooks. Meanwhile, the NFL’s referees directly influence the game’s outcome. I need clarification on why this isn’t a blatant conflict of interest because it seems like an obvious conclusion.
Moreover, it is creating a population of people who will develop gambling addictions. My teenage daughter came home from school with a $20 bet placed on the Super Bowl, and I had to explain why it wasn’t ok and what it could lead to. That’s how dangerous it is and how quickly it’s developed.
2. Using the Term “Body Count” for Intimate Partners
Each generation has its own experiences while witnessing the evolution of things, including words. For example, according to Merriam-Webster, the term “body count” was coined by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War, signifying the “number of killed enemy combatants” in 1962.
However, the term is frequently used today to indicate the number of people someone has slept with. Some take offense to the violent implication of the term. It’s not difficult to understand why people growing up with the Vietnam nightly news playing in their homes would hear that term and have it rub them the wrong way. It may even be triggering PTSD for veterans who have served and understand the original implications of the term.
3. Texting Serious Conversations
Some conversations are meant to be in person or over the phone. However, it’s become the social norm to text serious information or even post it online before picking up the telephone.
Can you imagine learning about someone you love passing away via text message? Sadly, it’s become the norm. Also, so much gets lost in text messaging because there is far too much ambiguity in the tone and delivery of your words. People are walking around feeling deep emotions that aren’t real because of how they interpreted what someone meant.
4. Verbal Combativeness
It’s become perfectly acceptable to act like an entitled person in public. Sometimes, it seems that everyone’s opinion is so important and that they must be voiced at the expense of shaming and belittling others.
Once upon a time, people extended a basic cordialness to others, regardless of their hobbies, religious affiliations, or political beliefs. Sometimes, being pleasant, even superficially polite, is acceptable instead of needing to make your unique and specific viewpoint heard everywhere and all of the time. The social norm of verbal combativeness is one many people dislike.
5. Ideological Assumptions
The fact that everyone is boxed in by their labels leads to the assumption that if you say one thing, you automatically believe something else.
For example, if you say that we should tighten gun control laws, that automatically means you’re anti-gun and want to take everybody’s guns away. Or, if you say you’re a Christian, it automatically lumps you into whatever their idea of being a Christian is.
6. Not Spelling or Using Words Properly
Many people have an issue with the widespread inability to spell or use words correctly. Text messaging has greatly contributed to the demise of proper English.
I remember attending college and having a professor explain why we needed to spell out the word “you” and not write it as “u” in our essays. I was a decade older than my classmates and astonished that this needed to be explained.
7. People Not Using Capital Letters or Punctuation
In addition to spelling errors, it’s now socially normal not to use capital letters or punctuation when writing. Go to any comment section, and you’ll see evidence of this. It makes it difficult to follow what they’re saying or comprehend any points being made.
8. Being Around People When You’re Sick
As someone who spent decades working in food service and retail, it’s disgusting how many people are at work sick. First, the managers won’t let you call in. They try to make it your responsibility to find a replacement and even threaten to write up or fire you if you don’t show up and cannot find someone to cover your shift. Sadly, many people can’t afford to miss work due to crummy wages and not having mandatory paid sick leave.
9. Not Using Headphones
Kids and even some adults are using their electronic devices out in public at full volume without headphones or the common courtesy of respecting other people around them. No one wants to hear strangers’ TikToks, games, YouTube, music, or phone conversations. However, it’s become the social norm to allow it.
10. Children Having Social Media
Children having social media accounts is one social norm that many agree with as being entirely wrong. It’s dangerous. There are predators online posing as children, saving pictures for grotesque purposes, and even meeting up with them in real life, resulting in devastating endings. Yet, elementary-aged children have TikToks, Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook accounts.
11. Wearing Pajamas in Public
What’s your take on wearing pajamas and slippers to the grocery store? It’s a social norm, especially around schools in some neighborhoods. However, many Americans believe it’s inappropriate and disgusting. For example, do you crawl back into bed after leaving the home with those pajamas? If so, you’re bringing in all kinds of icky germs and possibly even fecal matter.
12. Ghosting People
Today’s culture has become one of disposable people, and then they wonder why people are so lonely. Whether personally or professionally, ghosting people is an insensitive, hurtful, and cowardly way to end a relationship.
Unless there is an imminent danger in communicating a goodbye, there is zero excuse for ghosting someone like they’re not due the respect of knowing you no longer wish to communicate with them.
13. Posting Your Entire Life Online
Posting one’s entire life online has become the social norm, and it’s dangerous. People don’t fully appreciate how possible it is to string together all the little details from multiple sources to form a detailed picture of someone’s life, which, honestly, should terrify them.
14. Being on the Phone When Having Live Conversations
People being on their phones while in the presence of live conversation is extremely common and utterly rude. How could anyone argue differently? How do you feel when talking to a friend who has their head buried in their cell phone?
Too many people scroll social media, text people, or play games on their phones instead of giving the live person in front of them the attention they deserve. It’s sad and will only get worse.
15. Using the Name “Karen” as an Insult
The lazy stereotype and insult that every white woman who complains is a Karen is a social norm that’s not funny and has lost any originality. For starters, sometimes, these women have a legitimate complaint.
Calling someone a Karen on social media has become a lazy comeback when you disagree, and it’s often cyberbullying. Imagine being named Karen and being nothing like the stereotype.
16. The “OK Boomer” Dismissal of Hearing Different Beliefs
Similarly, can we stop using the phrase “OK, Boomer?” It’s overused and completely lumps an entire generation into a box, which is prejudiced and unfair. Moreover, people say it often spouts at people who aren’t even boomers, so it’s ignorant, as well. Finally, it signifies a total lack of respect for elders, and that’s something we need to bring back.
17. Tipping for Everything
Tipping has gotten entirely out of control, and I’m a former service worker. For Father’s Day last year, I ordered a T-shirt from a screening business selling on Amazon and was dumbfounded when it prompted me to tip before checking out. On Amazon. What? No.
Now, everyone, everywhere, is flipping iPads at you with three tip percentage suggestions for things like buying a muffin wrapped in plastic wrap.
18. Excessive Use of the “F” Word
I’m old enough to remember when excessive use of that word was not the norm. It’s not that people weren’t using the word, but it wasn’t every third word in the conversation norm. It wasn’t on TV and only in rated-R movies. There was a real shock factor when you heard it. Now, it’s the norm to hear it in public, around children, on TV, and in music.
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Elizabeth Ervin helps people embrace a change in money mindset to achieve their financial goals. After struggling for a decade as a single mother, consumed by the American debt cycle, she recognizes the value of financial education and lifestyle changes and aspires to motivate others to make those changes to obtain financial freedom. She heavily advocates for praying about and over your finances and speaking positive money affirmations to manifest abundance.
