What are “Society Norms”? Society norms are “Social rules that determine acceptable or appropriate behavior within individuals, groups, and environments.” If you were to ask what today’s society norms are greeting people when meeting them or opening the door for others behind you. I interviewed James about what they were like in his prime time of living. What most of us are living right now except with less technology and standards for the average student and young adult.
My oral history interview was done by me giving James contrasting questions about society norms from then versus now. I did this interview at night just before he had to leave for his job and I got good quotes on what it is like close to 30 years ago. He boasts a lot about his high school years to me, so hearing his answers to my questions gave me a greater idea of what he was feeling and maybe going through in his time.
When I questioned him on what teenage relationships were like back then he responded with, “ They were a lot less stressful and a lot simpler because of no social media. There was also a lot of talking on the phone because there wasn’t texting and personal meetups like malls and public places.” Putting what he said in contrast to how high school relationships are like today, they seem more worth the dedication towards each other. Also into comparison of “hook-up” culture that is now a societal norm in today’s time.
I also had asked James about the societal norms that were established in his prime time. He had questions that were relevant and quite interesting, contrasting it to nowadays from things that were more focused on his high school transition time, and his adaptability becoming a young adult. I went on to talk about more of what is a bigger issue and talked about more than what it was back then.
The second thing was that I questioned him about prices, which nowadays are a big argument across society. I asked him what it was like buying things in his prime time versus now. He concluded with that, “ It was a lot more entertaining because you had to go out to the store to get things, making it more of an adventure. It was also more interactive and gave you a chance to socialize because there was no online stuff.”
This question was important to ask someone who has gone through these transitions of rising prices and having to adapt to them while also working to live comfortably. It’s a huge thing that society, now and then, struggles with coming to terms with. We now have the option to shop online to look up things that interest us, while looking through prices to find dupes, cheaper options, and coupon codes.
When continuing on with my second question, I had him elaborate on it and give an example of how he feels about shopping and prices now. He followed up with, “Now, it’s more hectic and stressful because with the introduction of the internet, you have to be careful with scams and misleading content. Also it’s more difficult to find what you’re looking for with stores disappearing and all dying, there’s not many adventures.” This response had me thinking about what we do now, which is to avoid most social interactions to shop in our comfort zones, which in some cases isn’t always ideal.
On the topic of comfort zones and adapting to prices, the older we get and hit milestones like getting our first job, graduating high school, paying for our own living space, etc. are things we have to get into a habit of. Most of these habits though come with our ages and our mental capabilities. Stuff like this has relation to the last question I asked James.
The final question of my interview was targeted towards the big transition of going from a highschool student into adulthood. My question was” How was transitioning into adulthood and dealing with adapting into society norms at that age?” He responded with, “ Exceedingly difficult. It got more and more challenging as I grew up, but that transition into adulthood I was in the military straight out of highschool. And the transition from the military into civilian life was a little easier to adapt to.”
This interview gave me a good perspective on how things back then were probably more forgiving and my dad gave me better insight to what I missed out on in experiencing. My questions about relationships, buying things, the process, and how it was transitioning into adulthood are all big, relevant things to have insight about when growing up. As a high school student now those are some of the bigger things in life that I worry about when getting older, so having this interview was somewhat self-benefiting especially from an adult figure.
