Being Normal

[Raver]

What is it and what does it mean to you?

To me being normal simply means having a common personality and state of mind. In the sense that if you're normal, it shouldn't be too difficult to find someone that is very similar to you. Also, if weird people were common and normal people were not common then it would make weird people normal and normal people weird. Being weird as in not common results in being ostracized to an extent because you are somebody that most people are not used to so they feel they have this right to punish you for it. Most normal people like to think they're a beautiful unique snowflake, but if they were truly unique then they'd feel the pain of ostracism depending on how weird they are. Most weird people wish they were normal so they can be fully accepted into social groups. I think the ability to adapt to social norms and being normal mostly depends on the kind of childhood you had, which could reinforce you to develop into a normal social adult or into a maladjusted awkward one where genetics might have some influence. Psychiatry though I think takes this too far and tends to make any slight deviation from the norm into a personality disorder. While it's good to know what is different about you in order to improve, it backfires because it gives people a label to ostracize and attack. I'm just curious and would like to hear some thoughts on this.

[Roro]

Being normal is like standing in front of a jury, it's pretty much all based on the majority ruling: what the majority of the jury sees as acceptable and normal, then that is what's acceptable and normal - anything less, we are more than likely going to be classified negatively and rejected in some manner. Take a 25-year-old woman who goes up to a group of young children saying that she still believes in Santa Claus and can't wait for him to visit her house again - they aren't going to see her as weird, they are going to embrace her because of a commonality; however, take that same woman and the same issue - only she tells this to peers in her own age group. For the most part, she will most likely be seen as weird for having such a strange belief that's uncommon for her age. (Sorry if I have ruined anybody's Christmas here, you had to find out sooner or later )

Perhaps you're right about some of the issues stemming from childhood. Admittedly, I have felt a bit like a social misfit since I was a child, and I could never fully accept who I really was - even through high school, I would 'try on' different personalities just to see which one was the most acceptable and made me feel the most included with others; but you know, stuff like that never really works - at least not for me. While I loved it when I was 'socially acceptable', I hated the fact that I wasn't being true to myself.

How do you achieve the needs of being yourself and being accepted, simultaneously, when they are often conflicting matters? And on that note, I guess it could depend on personal desires - maybe there are people who would be considered 'weird' to the world around them, but their main goal is to feel included; perhaps they don't actually care about whether or not they are being true to themselves, thus being something they aren't doesn't make them feel as much mental and emotional turmoil as the person who does care about being true to themselves. Are all 'normal' people really that normal? Maybe the normal they show to the world around them in just a facade? Can we pick out a random normal person and be 100% positive that they are normal? Perhaps they are weird just like us, but are better able to hide it.

Maybe the way we should look at it is that normals are like conformists, while weirds are individualists. I think I prefer categorizing myself as a non-conformist as opposed to a weirdo.


Ahhh... I don't know what I'm saying right now. I'm just rambling. I'm tired.

Anyways, I'm slowly but surely embracing it. I have found that you can still be accepted even if you are a bit abnormal, and I'm pretty lucky to have found a couple of people who accept me even through all of that.

[DirectorAbbie]

Normal is equivalent to average. If half the world wears blue and half the world wears yellow, the person wearing green is normal and the person wearing pink is weird.

[717495]

Normal is more the mode than the average. Like if you had a group of midgets and then a group of every day folk, it would be rare to find someone more in the middle since those assets don't blend.

[MoonlightChild]

Being normal is lyke when ur preppy and popular and being weird is being goth, its not about the number of people kk being goth is about being part of BlAcK HeArD and dressing in black if you wear abercrombie and fitch then ur normal if u wear hot topic then ur a goth.

[Leader]

Nobody is normal.

[Trevor]

Nobody is normal.

You mean, everyone is abnormal in some respect?

That is pretty normal.

[Creepy-Snaps]

What is it and what does it mean to you?

To me being normal simply means having a common personality and state of mind. In the sense that if you're normal, it shouldn't be too difficult to find someone that is very similar to you. Also, if weird people were common and normal people were not common then it would make weird people normal and normal people weird. Being weird as in not common results in being ostracized to an extent because you are somebody that most people are not used to so they feel they have this right to punish you for it. Most normal people like to think they're a beautiful unique snowflake, but if they were truly unique then they'd feel the pain of ostracism depending on how weird they are. Most weird people wish they were normal so they can be fully accepted into social groups. I think the ability to adapt to social norms and being normal mostly depends on the kind of childhood you had, which could reinforce you to develop into a normal social adult or into a maladjusted awkward one where genetics might have some influence. Psychiatry though I think takes this too far and tends to make any slight deviation from the norm into a personality disorder. While it's good to know what is different about you in order to improve, it backfires because it gives people a label to ostracize and attack. I'm just curious and would like to hear some thoughts on this.

In the context you describe "normal", I'd say it means 'socially acceptable'.

[InkStrider]

Being normal usually equates to conformity. Conformity to norms and rules, whether implicit or explicit. Stray from that, and you're at risk of being known as awkward/weird.

Normality is boring though.

[Aquagraph]

I find it funny that perfect normality is abnormal by nature.

Normal is equivalent to average. If half the world wears blue and half the world wears yellow, the person wearing green is normal and the person wearing pink is weird.

I hope you're kidding as the other option would be that you're depressingly stupid. So half of the world are male and the other half are female, so a normal person is hermafrodite?

[Absurd]

Being normal usually equates to conformity.

Nice avatar Inky boy:

[Absurd]

I hope you're kidding as the other option would be that you're depressingly stupid. So half of the world are male and the other half are female, so a normal person is hermafrodite?

Bow down to Director Abbie's logics. Hell froze.

[EyeSeeCold]

Normal is what's expected.

The expected is normal, the unexpected is abnormal.

When the unexpected becomes normal, what's abnormal is what's unexpectedly expected.