This assignment was extremely interesting because I have never taken into consideration how we as humans communicate on an every day basis. The first part of the assignment, where I could only communicate with gestures was difficult for both my partner and I. We were trying to discuss how to set the table for thanksgiving dinner, yet I could only point to the different table clothes and knives that we had. My partner had to use different tones to ask different questions. We also had to use direct eye contact for every question which almost gave a more human like connection.
My partner was in control of hr entire conversation. My partner initiated and controlled every conversation and question. I answered every question with mainly head nods or pointing. My partner had mere control of the entire conversation. There was no way for me too communicate because I could only use gestures which indicate yes or no answers or pointing to different objects.
The culture that uses speaking for communication usually has a larger advantage because they have more words and methods for communication. Often times people who speak feel more superior to the people who use gestures because they feel they have an advantage. I think in today's society, people who us sign language are discriminated against because they are minorities. People are often afraid and do not know who to communicate with those who cannot speak and it can be extremely difficult.
For the second part of the experiment, I found it way easier to communicate with my partner because we could both understand one another and it took less attention to communicate with one another. No eye contact was necessary and not using gestures was pretty simple. At this point, my partner and I were discussing our grocery list for Thanksgiving as well as our method plan for cooking. It did not require any eye contact whatsoever. My partner had no difficulty understanding me; however, I tried using this method with my dog and it was extremely difficult. My dog is used to me signing to her and she was getting extremely frustrated because I could not do anything but speak to her in different tones.
I think body language us extremely important in today's society. Body language ques how a person is feeling. It can indicate if a person is upset or happy or sad.
When a person has the ability to read body language, it may help while traveling to different countries where there are language barriers. Body language may also help while finding a spouse or lover because being able to read whether a person is into you or not is a viable skill.
Often times, younger children have not developed the skills to read body language and it is difficult for them to understand people's emotions. While people are talking on the phone or even doing online classes it is impossible to read body language. It can also be hard while reading texts to understand how a person is feeling. I think in today's world with phones and social media, people often struggle with body language because we are so glued to our phones and reading things and trying to interpret how people are feeling. This can be a good skill because the world is evolving and we can communicate with people around the world, but it can be bad because people may misinterpret a person's emotion.
Ultimately, communication is a method of survival and learning these different methods of body language and eye contact can create a more commutative society.
@pumkinspice I found it interesting that you stated in part 1 you and your partner were using more eye contact to communicate ,as you stated almost gave a more human like connection. I often find that a lot of people I run into don't use eye contact when conversing. I think that using your eyes when in conversation adds more depth and meaning to words, yet people shy away from this type of connection. In part 2 I absolutely agree with you, we as a society are so in tuned with our phones and social media, in return we are lacking one essential part of communication through body language. Also when we txt, things can get lost in translation since we are trying to express ourselves in a way that only show "words" on our phone screens and we are scrambling to try and interpret some kind of tone to the words that are displayed which can leave someone with a different interpretation. Great post!
ReplyDeletePart A: Good opening description. Why did your partner feel the need to change his "tones"? You could understand him, correct? And he knew that, right? You often see people do that when faced with someone who communicates differently from them (those who are deaf or have disabilities), even if that response doesn't actually help the situation.
ReplyDeleteGood discussion of power and control in the conversation.
I agree with your conclusion regarding the two opposing cultures. Good real life example.
Part B:
Great description here and I loved that you tried this with your dog! My dog would also be confused, even though I use both vocal and hand signals. He tends to ignore the words and cue off the body language instead.
I don't disagree with your conclusions regarding the information we receive from body language, but you are only considering the situation where body language matches and supports the information you receive from spoken language. What does it tell you when the body language doesn't match the spoken language? Humans tend to use body language as a type of lie detector. If spoken words don't match with the body language, we are more inclined to believe the body language and doubt the words. Think about how being able to detect liars might help an individual's ability to survive and reproduce (which applies to the next section).
Okay on the benefits of body language, but what type of benefits do you get by being able to detect liars?
Actually, children are much better reading body language than adults, as it is the first language they learn. But I agree that it can be difficult to read body language in texts. That's why emoticons were developed, to fill that body language hole in digital conversations.
But there are actually groups of people who have great difficulty or an outright inability to read body language due to physical or mental disability, such as those who are in the autism spectrum or those who are blind (though they can read vocal intonation).
Missing the final question? Can you think of a situation where it might be better to avoid reading body language? For example, is there any situation you can think of where body language might actually mislead you, not because the person is lying but because you don't know how to read the body language? Do all cultures use the same system of body language? They all use different systems of spoken/written language, so why would we assume their body language isn't different? If you travel to another country, can you trust the information you get from their body language?