Ever think about how there are some really weird things out there that we all just accept as normal? Like, seriously, what’s up with that? Who just decides these things one day?
The people of Reddit were recently asked, “What’s the weirdest thing society accpets as normal?” I’m not gonna lie, a lot of these had me thinking .
“Working until you’re old, greying, and broken then using whatever time you have left for all the things you wish you could have done when you were younger.” – Excited_Avocado_8492
I think the worst thing about this is the fact that it’s normal to work so much, you have no time for anything fun. No wonder people don’t have kids.
“Taking way more than we need. From everyone and everything.” – Same_Earth_9232
I know there are plenty of examples of this kind of thing, but I can’t help but think about the beginning of 2020, when people were out there hoarding toilet paper. It was totally unnecessary and pointless!
“The entire timeframe that we made up. Like how it’s gotta be 8+ hour work days 5 days a week etc..” – KairuSenpai1770
I’m glad that society is trying to move away from the five-day, eight-hour work week, especially since there are a lot of cases where you’re working more than eight hours a day, five days a week. The concept of working hours is just really bizarre to me.
“‘Feel-good’ news stories about how a kid makes a lemonade stand or something to pay for her mom’s cancer treatment because no one can afford healthcare in America.” – GotaLuvit35
It’s really sad how you’ll hear stories about kids working hard to help their parents/grandparents, when they shouldn’t be working at all! And people actually applaud them for it.
“Clapping to show approval or happiness. Clapping is weird. Just slapping your hands together.” – denferno
Clapping is definitely one of those things we just do without really thinking about it. But now that I am thinking about it, it’s kind of weird! Who decided that clapping had to be a thing?
“Social media.” – ManufacturerLess7116
I love how we as a society collectively decided that we needed to share every detail of our lives with complete strangers around the world. And no one bats an eye at it.
“The crack in bathroom stalls.” – bamlambian
I swear, the crack in the stall door only exist so that people can peek inside to see if it’s empty. Which is… really weird. I love it when public bathrooms do away with the crack entirely.
“The lack of respect for retail staff.” – SaneNSanity
This is another thing that’s slowly but truly changing. If you’ve never worked in retail, consider yourself lucky. People will really show up and act like they’re better than you because you work a minimum wage job.
“Students being assigned homework over weekends and only having a two day weekend.” – MrPers0n30
“The whole point of a weekend is to take a break from life…”
To be honest, the whole concept of homework makes no sense. Why spend hours a day at school, only to have to spend hours a day at home doing more school?
“For me it’s expecting kids to ask for permission before they go to the bathroom. Like. What the hell.” – LuckyMe-Lucky-Mud
Going to the bathroom is like… a basic need? Like, we can’t not go to the bathroom. When you really think about it, it’s so weird that kids have to ask permission when going to the bathroom at school.
And it’s even weirder if a teacher says no.
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“I always thought ties are weird. It’s an elongated pentagon shaped cloth we wear in front of our chest when we want to look fancy.” – Son_Postman
By that logic, everything we wear is weird. Like, the idea that one day, someone will decide that a shirt or an accessory made out of a certain fabric or shaped a certain way is good? So weird!
“Dancing. If you really think about it, rhythmically moving to sound for no constructive purpose is kinda weird. It’s almost bird-like behavior.” – cinemascifi
I think this is similar to clapping your hands and wearing clothes; someone decided that this was cool one day and it just stuck. Not that I’m complaining!
“To discourage men from showing any emotions In public because I’ll [sic] make them look weak.” – Snoo62900
Society’s reaction to people crying in general is pretty weird. Like, it’s something our bodies do involuntarily at times, and yet if a woman does it she’s dramatic, and if a man does it, he’s weak. Why are we so weird about crying?
“Asking a woman’s parents before marrying their daughter, like she’s cattle or something. Idk always felt weird about that.” – Different-Parsley205
There are a lot of traditions surrounding marriage (and even marriage itself) that seem to have more to do with the family of the bride than… the actual bride. Last I checked, you don’t marry someone’s family.
“Hustle culture.” – nobobthisisnotyours
“Instead of prioritizing friendships, family time, hobbies, and resting to recover from long and stressful work weeks we celebrate the work 40+ hours a week and use our free time to do something that makes money.”
It’s so weird how revolving your entire life around making as much money as often as possible is normal .
“The way we treat children.” – FickleBeekeeper
“If you would never yell at an adult over something, why would you yell at a child? Wouldn’t you hug a crying friend, rather than send them away?”
I know that you can’t necessarily treat kids like you would adults, but there are some methods of discipline that feel… needlessly cruel. And possibly traumatizing.
“Alcohol is so normalized but drugs are not. It’s so weird.” – onions_cutting_ninja
When you really think about it, it is pretty weird that we’ve all accepted a drug that can be highly addictive and potentially fatal when ingested as normal. Meanwhile, other drugs are demonized.
“Same with caffeine,” added Repossessedbatmobile, “People get addicted to caffeine all the time. They can even experience withdrawal symptoms if they don’t have access to it. But it’s so normalized that no one bats an eye.”
“Domestic abuse against men.” – turtyurt
Case in point: any movie or show where a woman hits a man, and it’s played for laughs. It isn’t right if a man hits a woman, but why do we accept the other way around as normal, or funny?
“That dead people need pillows in caskets.” – Qfn4g02016
I honestly think that most burial traditions are kind of weird. We preserve dead bodies to the point where it takes decades before they decompose, all so that they can be put in the ground. Like, it’s just so weird!
“Lack of sleep being some sort of badge of honor.” – fuzzycuffs
You know what lack of sleep does to you? It stresses you out, which makes you more susceptible to illness. It’s really weird that people act like getting no sleep is supposed to be impressive.
