Is Procrastination a Social Norm or a Form of Deviance? By Sia Gerard

            Procrastination is an act everyone takes a part in everyday, regardless of their situation in life. Everyone from young junior high students to adults who have been out of school for a while participate in procrastination. Some people would say that it is a form of deviance because by definition deviance is “any violation of norms” and avoiding what should be done is a violation of norms. In today’s world of technology and the Internet, however, people procrastinate all the time. It seems that procrastination is now more of a social norm than a deviance.

By definition a social norm is a “rule or standard of behavior shared by members of a social group.”  The norm in the case of education is to do work and learn in school to continue your education. I’ve seen through my school career, my classmates procrastinate from doing their homework or class work, until the very last minute. In high school and below it is difficult to find out how much students really procrastinate but from what my classmates said, they procrastinate most of the time. Now that I live in a residence hall I’ve observed that close to everyone is procrastinating at any given time. It is much easier to notice now because I am living with many of my fellow classmates. Although procrastination is a deviance of the norm of education, there are more students who procrastinate than students who get everything done as soon as it is assigned. The standard has been changed; it is now standard behavior to procrastinate since the majority of the social group participates.

We have seen it with working adults as well. When bills need to be paid or taxes need to be filled out, people take as long as possible to do them without having a penalty.  The activities they end up doing instead, become a form of procrastination.  Even with basic activities like cleaning or going to the doctor, people try to take as long as possible before there is a negative sanction connected with not doing them. Those people end up doing something more pleasurable which benefits them in the short term and doesn’t require as much energy or effort. In this social group it has become a norm to avoid these activities as long as possible, thus changing the deviance once associated with it. 

At what point does a deviance become a social norm? The deviance of procrastinating has become a norm in school and beyond, the likelihood of a student doing all their work the day it is assigned or within a few days is much lower than the likelihood of seeing them procrastinate until the last minute.  The same goes for working adults who need to pay their bills. The deviance of procrastinating doesn’t have as many negative sanctions as it once did so it has become more socially acceptable, and is thus has become more of a norm.

Funny video about procrastination:

Sources:

1.   "social norm." © Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.. Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.. 04 Oct. 2011. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/social norm>.

2.     Henslin, James. Essentials of Sociology. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2007. Print.

3.   Image: http://fsucge.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/procrastination/