Brace Yourselves: 5 Bizarre Social Norms That'll Make You Question If Saturn Is in Retrograde
Added on April 19, 2025 inASTROLOGY CARDS
Popular
Numerology Meets Netflix: Get Your Daily Dose of Cosmic Cinema Suggestions Powered By Our AI Astrologer. Find The Show Or Movie You Were Meant To See!
Then Join Our FREE Newsletter To Watch Your Choice Of Movies And Shows For FREE Plus Get The Latest Entertainment News And Updates!
Ever wonder if the stars could explain our evolving social behaviors? With Mercury retrograde lingering over our heads like Selena Gomez’s newest hit track, it’s no surprise our communication has taken some bizarre turns. Relationship experts, those wise Watchers of human behavior, have seen these changes playout in their clients’ quirky experiences. Here are five weird social rules that have sneakily become the norm, thanks to technology and our changing societal landscape:
Here are five weird social rules that have become our new norm:
Read the full list here in the original article. Also include a live hyperlink with the anchor text ‘LEARN .
Social rules and norms drift and morph as humans adapt to environmental change and the unending stream of new technologies. Over the years, a new set of unwritten rules has quietly taken over how we act, text, post, or even make eye contact.
As astute observers of human behavior, relationship experts can recognize changing social rules through their clients’ communication and experiences. The way we communicate significantly changes our social rules, and the change is often driven by technology, society, and how we speak to each other. These rules aren’t official, by the way, but if you break one, you might feel it.
DavideAngelini via Shutterstock
On social media, if you have something to say, do it ceremoniously with a selfie and make sure it has zero benefits to humanity, counselor Larry Michel observes with a heavy dose of sarcastic exaggeration that punctuates a real and dangerous cultural shift.
Adapting to the ability to instantly communicate on a global level has been an ongoing process with our increasing dependence on technology. We are still watching the impact of everyone having a digital soapbox play out on a global scale in politics and economics.
Advertisement
Voronaman via Shutterstock
Today, uninvited “Hey,” or “What’s up?” texts without a clear intent are seen as irritating and even borderline disrespectful. When you message someone, you should be direct and clear, advises life coach Sidhharrth S Kumaar.
Advertisement
maxbelchenko via Shutterstock
Coach Kumaar continues to add how ignoring texts for up to 48 hours without feeling guilty is becoming more socially acceptable due to an increased focus on mental well-being. Some people even add that they are “Taking my ghosting grace period” on their status update to indicate they need a break from quick responses.
Advertisement
Reezky Pradata via Shutterstock
After years of younger generations complaining about people who use their phones the old-fashioned way — by calling your number — it’s now become a norm to text first or text only, notes therapist Gloria Brame. Direct calls are considered rude intrusions, while texts make contact easier to handle because they can wait until you are ready to respond, if and when you care to respond.
This is a pushback to the ubiquity of cell phones. In the days when you had to walk to a phone booth or use a landline at home, access to phones was limited. Nowadays, with everyone carrying wireless phones, they can make calls at any time from anywhere.
For many people, it’s too much stress to constantly answer phone calls — particularly when that person isn’t pleasant to speak with! Remember how many of us just let our answering machines pick up for us while we screened our calls carefully to disregard nuisance calls?
Today’s solution is to text. Texting restores a little of the privacy cell phones took away. It turns out that to “reach out and touch someone” has become too touchy for the modern world.
Advertisement
Media Whale Stock via Sutterstock
Psychiatrist Sharon Saline knows there are two types of communication: verbal and non-verbal.
Verbal communication has to do with words you use to explicitly communicate an idea. Non-verbal communication is what you implicitly express through specific behaviors, body language, and demeanor.
Verbal communication can be difficult enough on its own, but when you also need to track non-verbal queues, like posture, tone, and physical proximity, social interactions can feel overwhelmingly hard. Successful communication involves appropriate verbal and non-verbal communication tools.
Unfortunately, mobile phones and other devices have given us a powerful verbal communication tool with unintended non-verbal communication consequences. When our phone becomes a distraction away from face-to-face communication, it send a clear message to the receiver. You have more important things to do, and those thing are in your phone. You disengage.
Technology has brought us a powerful tool for communication, which has impacted society and the way we interact with others. For better or worse, communication technology is here to stay, so let’s be aware of how it has changed us as humans.
Will Curtis is a creator, editor, and activist who has spent the last decade working remotely.
Advertisement
){kind=link}