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46 Examples of Social Reality

John Spacey, August 04, 2021

Social reality are the shared meanings, practices and experiences of groups such as a society or culture. This can be contrasted with scientific theory in areas such as biology and personal realities such as an individual's private thoughts. Social reality is a pragmatic thing whereby it exists where people in a society, culture or group accept it as existing. The following are illustrative examples of social realities.

Aesthetics	Art
Beliefs	Brands
Competition	Comradery
Concepts	Culture
Events	Family
Fashion	Festivals
Firms	Freedom
Friendship	Games
Goals	Holidays
Identity	Institutions
Knowledge	Language
Laws	Manners
Markets	Money
Morals	Nations
Norms	Politics
Professions	Respect
Responsibilities	Rights
Rituals	Roles
Romance	Social Status
Sports	Stories
Symbols	Systems
Technologies	Traditions
Trust	Values

Social Construct vs Social Reality

Social construct is a more accurate term for social reality. Just because a group collectively believe something to be true doesn't make it real in an objective sense. For example, if a tribe believes that there is a huge fish under the ocean that causes earthquakes by slapping its fin on the ocean bottom, this is certainly socially constructed but it is a stretch to label this as reality.

Social Reality vs Personal Reality

Social reality is meaning that is accepted by a group at a point in time. This can be contrasted with personal reality whereby an individual believes something to be true without necessarily convincing others. Under a postmodern theory known as relativism, reality only exists at the personal level. This results in an unstable and untenable world where the individual is right to demand that society respect their personal views as personal opinions define reality. It is unclear how this is supposed to work as individual opinions typically conflict such that there is no basis for common ground without social reality and scientific reality.

Social Reality vs Scientific Theory

Social reality is freely defined by groups without the rigor of the scientific method. As such science is closer to objective truth whereby a hypothesis may have much objective evidence to support it to the point that it is accepted as a theory. However, the scope of social reality is far greater than the scope of science and deals elements of the human experience that are beyond measurement. For example, a German musician that many Germans view as having contributed greatly to German culture. This isn't a question for science as it relates to the human experience. In many cases, scientific theories or hypotheses are accepted into social reality. For example, modern societies accept that the planet Earth is approximately spherical. Likewise, a social science such as economics may study social realities with the scientific method.

46 Examples of Social Reality

Social Construct vs Social Reality

Social Reality vs Personal Reality

Social Reality vs Scientific Theory

Society

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