Social Construction of Reality

This week we learned about the Social Construction of Reality. By breaking the phrase apart you can figure out the definition pretty easily, social meaning society or people in society, construction meaning creation and reality meaning one's experience, it becomes clear that the definition for the social construction of reality is the way society perceives a specific experience. In class when we saw the spit on the spoon we thought it was gross only because that is what society believed to be gross, just as society has a belief that saliva, inside of someone's mouth is completely normal. We learned that there is no clear explanation of why these very similar items are described as drastically different, but they are. Everyone around us thinks so, therefore we all think the same without even realizing it.

The spit demo was just one example of the many things we think about in our daily lives without even realizing it. After realizing how strongly I conformed to society without even knowing it I began to take a step back and try to figure out what other things I am doing or thinking just because the people around me are too. Money, stop lights and even the simple act of wearing clothes are normal to us because it is what our society is used to. To people who lived in times before real streets and roads, to them a stop light could be just a range of colors, attempting to tell some one to stop or go but because it is not normal to them they may not think it is necessary to be followed. They may not understand why the computer generated light pattern should be able to have priority over their want to go if the light was red. To us though, we have become so used to street lights in our society that we would never think to question it. Seeing the Social Construction of Reality is a difficult to do but when you step back for a second and think, you start to notice life in a whole new light.