Activism as Deviance Assignment Brainstorming
Statement of the Problem
Statement of the Problem
- Define the norm you will violate
- For my fire project I have decide to unfold my call to action through media activism. I will break a norm by appearing to be “depressed” on social media. I will achieve this by publishing post that reflect a certain type of unhappiness with myself or life in general.
- Describe briefly how this norm acts as a mechanism of social control.
- This norm acts as a mechanism of social control because my attitude on the social networks should have an influence on the viewer's behavior towards my well being.
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- 1. Describe what you will do to violate the norm. Not only did I pretend to be “depressed” on social media, I also attempted to act the same way in school. I dressed “bummy”, wore little or no makeup and did not participate in class.
- Hypothesis
- Describe the range of possible reactions others will have to the violation of this norm.
- I initially thought that close friends and family would be the first to approach me.
- What do you predict the major reaction to be?
- The major reaction I predict to have is that people will actually believe that I would actually follow through with suicide.
- Potential Setting
- Where do you plan on the norm violation taking place? Be specific as possible.
- On the social media (Facebook and Snapchat) and school
- How many and what type of people do you expect to encounter?
- I expect to encounter friends, family, and teachers.
- Reflection
- Describe your own and others’ reactions before, during, and after each violation.
- To begin with I am not the kind of person to upload “sad” post, so when I did I had immediate messages asking if I was alright. Various people message me , but there was only one individual who was constant throughout the 5 days that I did this. When I concluded this experiment. I informed my Facebook friends that it was for a project. The next day in school two student approached me telling me that they thought I was serious.
- How did the reactions compare to what you had anticipated?
- I was surprised because I thought close friends and family would be the first to approach me; however, it was people I have minimum interaction with prior to this experiment.
- Note any differences between the groups’ reactions and discuss possible reasons for them.
- Family members did not approach me initially until my 3 post. I believe this was because they didn't want to seen nosy
- Why does the norm you choose to violate exist? What would happen if it didn’t exist? Would the results be good or bad?
- If this norm didn't exist that my result would have been the way they were because appearing sad or depressed on the social networks is would be something normal that we see everyday and no one would bother asking if was alright.
- Did your experience stimulate any other questions? How would you test those question?
- Why was it that I became absorbed in the experiment to the point where I became to feel down myself?
- Learning Extensions
- Look up the “spotlight effect” (not the kind that relates to photography or photoshop). Define it (in your own words) and describe how it relates to your experience.
- Spotlight effect is the phenomenon in which individuals believe they are the center of attention. This ties back to my experiment because the fundamental purpose of the experiment was to see how many people would surround me with essentially love and affection. Where I become the center of their concerns.
- What did this exercise teach you about the social justice activism as a method for changing the world?
- This exercise taught me plenty about social justice activism as method of changing the world because my initial prediction was the more people would worry about my well being. I have 474 friends on Facebook and out of those only about 20 approached me via message and 2 in person during school hours.
- Some people regularly choose to break social norms and act as social justice activists. Name 2-3 famous people who you consider to be social justice activists. Why do you think some people choose to be social justice activists?