Breaking Folkways

Folkways, the social norms we all follow in our everyday lives. It makes us "normal" or somewhat close to that. This week in class we had to break folkways and watch the reactions of people around us. To be honest, it was really hard! To do something that people don't normally do and to get weird looks from people takes a lot of courage. Especially because we were purposely doing it. Making sure we weren't breaking mores (do something that goes against our morals) or laws (the rules of our society!).

For my project of breaking a folkway I went to stores and paid in all change. No paper money involved. Quarters, nickels, dimes, and pennies. It was kind of intimidating to go up to the cashier and take out a big bag of change and start counting. I felt really awkward. Some people would give me dirty looks because I was slowing everything down. One person even yelled at me to hurry up and count faster. They would watch me with hawk eyes making sure I was counting it correctly but they wouldn't help me out. Out of all ten times I did this, there was one person who helped me and didn't make any rude faces or comments. I don't think that people understand that when they yell or make rude faces it just makes the situation worse and embarrasses the person. But after a couple times I got used to the faces and comments.

Overall, I think that people are really rude! I learned a lot from this project how fast-paced our society is. Everyone wants to get in and out without any hold ups. I don't think a lot of them realized that the more they interrogated me about it, the longer it took. I would look up then have to restart counting or I they would start taking some away and I would lose track. I think our society needs to slow down and take a chill pill. Because something so small as paying with change really made people mad. This shows a lot about the way our society is run and the way no one will go against what it is.