Currently, the planet has more than 7 billion people. It is hard to imagine, but somewhere people still eat each other, somewhere there is slavery in the truest sense of the word and ritual killings. For our modern society, where even the push of another person must certainly be accompanied by an apology from both sides, this seems uncivilized and wild. What prevents us from killing each other? To answer this question, it is necessary to consider the functions of social norms.
In simple terms,
social norms are the rules by which every member of society lives. To understand the definition and function of social norms, consider one of the experiments. G. Garfinkel suggested that his students behave in a non-standard way in society. For example, while shopping in a store, students did not take products from the shelves, but from baskets of other customers, paid for home dinner and constantly demanded clarifications in a friendly conversation. As a rule, people violated background expectations, and they did not know how to adequately and correctly respond to such strange behavior.
Social norms allow you to integrate a person into society, give him a set of rules and actions that are worth living, so as not to cause any suspicion and make acquaintances. Often we automatically say “thank you” for the courtesy of a person, and when greeting we extend a hand to a man, but not to a woman. So, the first functions of social norms are the integration of a person into society and the regulation of his growing up and life in it.
But not all people recognize the rules of the game. Within any society, there are many subcultures and countercultures. The first include protesting punks and skinheads smoking hippies and rappers, and the second culture includes terrorists and prostitutes. Prevention and elimination of such deviant (deviant) behavior are also functions of social norms. Since childhood, society in all its grandeur from the screens of TVs and posters, from the pages of books, through the speeches of relatives and friends, tells us how to act and what to watch out for. In childhood, we believe everything that an authoritative person will tell us. Through the above agents, we absorb these social norms. The rules influence and tell us the way out of simple situations, saving our time. They form stereotypes and background expectations, the violation of which we mentioned, describing the Garfinkel experiment. That is, the last function of social norms is the formation of acceptable types of behavior.
For a general development and understanding of the function of social norms in society, we advise you to watch the performances of such remarkable comedians as
George Carlin, Joe Rogan, Ellen Degeneres and Dylan Moran. In their comedic performances, they ridicule the outdated and bizarre rules of games in society, which we repeat every day without any second thought.
The functions of social norms can render a “bear service” resulting in dysfunctions and deviations. The constant demand of consumer ideology to buy more and more negatively affects the environment and the psychological well-being of society. To avoid this social genocide, you need to read a lot and develop critical thinking.