The Violation Of Folkways: A Reflection

The ways of behaviour which the people think right for specific situations are the folkways. It leads to cultural aspect or we can say convention of our lifestyle which is insisted by our habits, family, friends, school, etc. It is considered to be a norm that arises during social interaction and handed down from one generation to other that is why it is also known as norms of behaviour. There are not any serious consequences or any particular punishment written for violating these norms. In some cases, it cannot be tolerated by the society and they can burst out their anger or try to advise, laugh, or taunt as well. It’s just like moral rights and these activities are commonly used but not officially required. Some basic examples of folkways in western society includes standing in a queue, hold the door for someone, nodding or greeting fellow passengers at bus top, shaking hands and embracing while meeting and many more on the list.

The violation of folkways is generally break down of the expectations for e.g., if we are meeting someone, everyone expect that the other person should be respectful to us as we are showing respect to them but rather than being like that he will refuse to shake hand, get your name wrong or insult you, obviously it will be a bad impression but there is no rule that he need to be respectful towards you, it’s totally their choice to react as per them but our expectations will get hurt that is violation of folkways. Violating a folkway did not gave me a good experience at all and I have observed the hilarious reactions from public which gives me seamless awareness about folkways and its violation drawbacks.

The folkway I have tried to violate was cutting a queue, it might seem like a universal norm but certainly its not, as I went for my driving G1 level test in morning, there was a long queue of about 150 people approximately. I was shocked to see this much people lined up for test in morning because I have planned something else after the test. I have tried to cut the line just by asking a boy about the process of the test and I was feeling so happy because successfully I took over almost 100 people in a queue and it will save my time. Suddenly, I heard different shouting voices from behind. It was so obvious as they all were waiting from early morning and I cut the line and in Canada people considered a queue etiquette more seriously.

The reactions were so embarrassing as people were shouting at me from the back, saying rude words to me then one lady came to me and she explained very politely that we all are waiting from last 2,3 hours and you did wrong by cutting the line. People were very irritated from waiting and their frustration came to me as bad words, anger, abuse, etc. Obviously, the response was definite which I was expecting but the boy helped me to clear out the mess I created by telling them a lie that I was with him.

I have experienced the most embarrassing moment of my life that day. While preparing for that violation of folkway I was looking at the queue and thinking about the trick by which I can try to cut the line. Lastly, I found out the way that I will ask about the process of the test because I visited first time at that place and had no idea about the queue. So I was looking for an innocent person who will tell me everything in a polite way and where I can assume some probabilities that my trick will work. After doing the violation I was feeling so embarrassed that I did very wrong to that people who were waiting from so much time.

I have learned so many things like even if the folkway is just a social norm which cannot be punished, it is really embarrassing for a person when people will insult you and let you down after violating this norm. It affects the person’s mind and also hurt the moral values of the person.