Breaking Social Norms
- Experiment: Which experiment I executed:
ALWAYS MIX MEDIA. For 3 days, always “mix” media–always respond to a communication using a different medium of communication than the one that was used to contact you. (example: if you get a phone call, let it go to voicemail then SMS them. If you get an email, send a picture to their phone, etc. Respond to your twitter @’s in person.) Describe the reactions.
The reason I chose to do this experiment is because it involved the least amount of people; I didn’t have to interract with my 300-some Facebook friends, only one person. I also chose this because it was over a period of time, not just one day, thus making it more of an interesting experiment to me. It was also easiest for me to use platforms that I often use like Snapchat and Instagram, rather than using Facebook, which I rarely use.
I chose to use execute this experiment with my boyfriend, basically pushing his buttons in yet another way. The reason why I chose to use him as the subject is because we interract on almost all social media that I have, but with other people I interract with I only have connections with them on one type of social media.
2. Method: I executed this experiment by replying only to my boyfriend in different social media platforms. For example, if he texted me to meet him at Muddy for lunch, I responded on snapchat. If he then replied to me on snapchat, I would message him on Instagram. This basically caused a circle of replies between the two of us.
3. Results: The results kind of surprised me. I was told that someone previously did this same experiment with their significant other also, and recieved a lot of anger and tension between the couple because of this. However, with my experiment we just encountered a lot of confusion and lack of communication. Since Snapchat doesn’t save messages, and I didn’t want to because it would give the experiment away, my boyfriend and I missed replies that were sent as replies from messages from other social media apps. This caused a lot of frustration and confusion, and sometimes we even missed messages for lunch and meeting for classes because of this.
It is definitely a lot easier to communicate just in one platform, which is probably why this is considered a social norm. Information and messages don’t get lost in translation- where translation in this case is switching from app to app.
4. Discussion: I think communication norms are set in place for a good reason. As I just mentioned, communicating on one app rather than say, three, provides clear messages for both users. Breaking this norm was definitely weird for me, and I ended up confusing myself most of the time as I forgot what I said in another app, forcing myself to go back and re-read what I wrote. People definitely save a lot of time by going with this social norm, whether they realize it or not.
Not all social media and communication norms are good to have, I don’t think, as it restricts what one person may want to post or say on social media. For example, if the norm is to not post pictures of food on Instagram anymore, that restricts users basically from posting successful things that they would actually enjoy posting. Now users have to choose, do I want to post what I want, or what would be “normal,” and would get more attention?
I wonder what the future of social norms will become, as different social media sites close and new ones open. Will Snapchat become obsolete in recent years, therefore sharing your location (Snap map) will not be a social norm anymore? Only time will tell what will become of our current models of social norms and how they affect the user’s experience on social media.
