| What is normal? | |
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+6Scintill tomatoshadow soxowner32 Halogen- Saphira ichliebekase 10 posters |
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ichliebekase Simfile Author
Join date : 2010-05-21 Age : 31
| Subject: What is normal? August 27th 2010, 4:57 pm | |
| This came up in chat a few minutes ago. Rob said that his mother's eyes were normal when we were joking and I said that she was Asian. Austin (pmonibuv1) said "What do you mean by 'normal'?" and ORMIX said "I like how you say 'normal'." So what necessarily is normal? | |
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Saphira
Join date : 2009-11-21 Age : 38 Location : Budd Lake NJ
| Subject: Re: What is normal? August 27th 2010, 5:02 pm | |
| There is no such thing as normalcy that is recognized by all people. Now let me explain for one person something can be completely normal because that is what they have been exposed to and they are used to but to an outsider it may be very abnormal because they are unused to it.
Like in a certain state it may rain frequently so that is normal for those people in that state. But to an outsider that lives in a dry state that goes to visit it will seem very abnormal.
Of course people can describe things as normal I'm not saying it's a stupid term or anything but I am saying there is no specific things that are normal to all people because for some it will be and for others it will not be. | |
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ichliebekase Simfile Author
Join date : 2010-05-21 Age : 31
| Subject: Re: What is normal? August 27th 2010, 5:06 pm | |
| I think that because the thought of there being a "normal" is why we had historical events like the Holocaust. Adolf Hitler and his "minions" (so to say) all thought that anyone who was Jewish or looked a different way were to be sentenced to death.
But I definitely agree, there is no "normal" that is equivalent between all people of this huge world. There may be a huge chunk that believe something is normal, but "normal" is an opinion, and it's near impossible to make every single person's opinion be the same. | |
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Halogen-
Join date : 2009-11-22 Age : 32 Location : asdf
| Subject: Re: What is normal? August 27th 2010, 5:14 pm | |
| One way to think about something that is normal, is to think about something that is believed by a large group of people, or society - as a general control; something that is considered to be usually seen or noticed by a regular basis, or something that's not extravagant.
Although, one could wonder who defines these values as "normal". | |
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soxowner32
Join date : 2010-06-24 Location : Wherever You're Not
| Subject: Re: What is normal? August 27th 2010, 5:31 pm | |
| The way I look at it is: Everyone aspires to be 'normal'. If no one is normal, doesn't that make being NOT normal normality? But then, again, if everyone was normal, yet WASN'T normal then there would be no such thing as normal. | |
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Halogen-
Join date : 2009-11-22 Age : 32 Location : asdf
| Subject: Re: What is normal? August 27th 2010, 5:39 pm | |
| Sub-level thinking: if society assumes something to be normal, who's the one to decide whether or not society's views assume the position of normality? | |
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soxowner32
Join date : 2010-06-24 Location : Wherever You're Not
| Subject: Re: What is normal? August 27th 2010, 5:45 pm | |
| CAN any one person decide what is normal and what isn't? | |
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Halogen-
Join date : 2009-11-22 Age : 32 Location : asdf
| Subject: Re: What is normal? August 27th 2010, 5:58 pm | |
| That's where the sub-level thinking begins; most people assume that common trends are brought amongst the society they come in (a good example is to look at a technologically advanced country over one that is more primitive), but when mixing habitable areas with people of different diversities, something that is considered an ideal (as a whole group) might not sit with others.
This is where I pose the question - within all of the diversities (assume that we have the same amount of each race/quality), who is going to be the one to decide what the "normal" is? Or better yet, how would people go about deciding who's going to do what without commencing in an anarchistic manner? | |
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tomatoshadow
Join date : 2010-04-10 Age : 32
| Subject: Re: What is normal? August 27th 2010, 6:01 pm | |
| I had a lot of trouble with that before. Knowing what is normality in general, that is.
Now I just like to think that it's simply the majority, the average. It's meaning shouldn't mean more than what it really is.
If someone says something you do is not normal, it simply means that it's not what most people do.
People eating food is normal because most (all) people eat food. If food was no longer necessary and people wouldn't eat food anymore, eating food would be abnormal.
Yeah, this is how I see it. | |
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soxowner32
Join date : 2010-06-24 Location : Wherever You're Not
| Subject: Re: What is normal? August 27th 2010, 6:05 pm | |
| Okay, but what if say... Someone didn't use the internet a lot? In America, I'm sure the majority of people use the internet, or at least know how. If someone didn't use the internet a lot, but were around say... Me, for instance, and they said that it was abnormal, it would only be abnormal to them and the few people (again, I AM kind of assuming here. I don't statistically know how many Americans use the internet nor how much they use it) that also don't use it a lot. Wouldn't it? | |
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Scintill Simfile Author
Join date : 2009-11-26 Age : 31 Location : Netherlands
| Subject: Re: What is normal? August 27th 2010, 6:22 pm | |
| If your looking for a universal concept of normal, my family has been discussing this multiple times. In short, it requires you to be able to occupy yourself without affecting other people's lives, unless the other person approves and (indirectly) participates in your occupation (abstract speaking "making your occupation worthy of someone else's brain activity"). To be pessimistic yet realistic, organisms aren't meant to coexist, living in solitude would in a universal sense be rendered "normal", yet most people would say this is everything but normal. A majority people would say that doing something that bothers no one could be seen as "normal", but for others to judge it, it has to be noticed. So basically, being normal is when you either don't exist, live but are not known to man, or have achieved to do something that doesn't exist yet and keep it to yourself. On another theory, you could also be the embodiment of "the majority" | |
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Lorika
Join date : 2010-06-01 Age : 35 Location : Vancouver, BC
| Subject: Re: What is normal? August 27th 2010, 7:00 pm | |
| Wat.
I think the term normal describes the average of the subject in a given context. What's 'normal' changes along with the context. The word tends to be overused to describe what is expected by the user. There's generally no consensus on what is normal regarding most things.
Here's something, though: "What defines a mental disorder is not unreasonable thought, but abnormal behaviour that impairs normal functioning in society."
In this case 'normal' denotes self-reliance. | |
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Vanyr
Join date : 2010-07-19 Age : 35 Location : Interwebz.
| Subject: Re: What is normal? September 15th 2010, 4:07 am | |
| Normal equals conformity. | |
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eiddiM
Join date : 2009-11-22 Age : 31 Location : Puyallup Washington
| Subject: Re: What is normal? November 20th 2011, 6:47 pm | |
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Shiron Simfile Author
Join date : 2010-02-11
| Subject: Re: What is normal? November 25th 2011, 4:36 am | |
| - Middie wrote:
- Normal is bull shit
megalomaniac confirmed | |
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