Whaddup Social Norms

So. Last week's discussion of a strange social norm was so much fun I decided to pick another one this week, so here goes.

This week I'd like to discuss social norms related to strange ideas of personal privacy (or something along those lines, you'll see...)

First, let's talk about eye contact. The first thing I think of when I hear the words "eye contact" is a conversation. In a conversation, eye contact is important right? It tells the other person that:

1) You're not rude
2) You're actually paying attention to what they're saying
and 3) It tells them a little bit about what kind of person you are (especially in an interview setting, things like eye contact, hand shakes etc. are very important to the interviewer)

Another thing is, when someone is avoiding eye contact with me while we're talking, I either don't trust them (what they're saying) or I get self conscious that there's something wrong with my face. Do I have tomato sauce on my lip? A pimple? WHY WON'T YOU LOOK AT ME??

Anyway, what I'm trying to get at here is that I think it's fair to say that eye contact is something we really value in this society.

So then why are there times when eye contact seems unacceptable? Take this scenario:

You are walking down the sidewalk, maybe walking to or from class, perhaps you're listening to a good song on your iPod. It's a nice day outside, you're looking around at the trees, at the sky, at the buildings on College Ave... and then... all of a sudden, you look (for maybe no other reason than that is simply where your eye went) at a person walking in the opposite direction of you on the sidewalk... you make eye contact.

What do you do? You look away right? Maybe you look at the ground, or try to make it seem like you just happened to look at this person on your way to look at the interesting something to the left of their head, maybe you pretend you just got a text message, I don't know. But the point is, for some reason it's not acceptable to maintain eye contact with this person on the sidewalk.

Other places that eye contact is generally seen as breaking a social norm:
-Classrooms
-Hallways
-Bathrooms (Speaking of which, I'll be getting to a bathroom social norm next)

I just think these sort of unspoken "rules" are very interesting.

Okay- bathroom social norm. *DISCLAIMER* I am only talking about the dude's room. I have no idea what goes on in the ladies' bathroom. Promise.

So in the men's room, if it can at all be avoided, you do not take the urinal next to someone who is already there. Reasonable? Maybe not, but definitely justifiable. However this holds true when there are dividers and even when you move to the stalls.

Can you think of anywhere else where this same thing holds true? (the ladies can answer too now)

In my opinion, just about everywhere. In classes, you don't take the seat next to someone, you take the seat all the way over. On the bus, unless it's full, you take the seat one over from someone who is already sitting down. When eating, you tend to sit as far away from others as you can without seeming like you're trying to do so.

Isn't this weird? I think this is bizarre. I mean, what kind of privacy do you think you're protecting? Do we think it'll be awkward if we sit next to someone? Isn't that what the damn seat is there for?

It's very curious...

These kinds of things are all very curious...