Communication In Action

Nonverbal cues are an important part of communication, but they can very easily be misinterpreted. I found this out when I watched a show I had never seen before, “Up All Night,” first without sound and then with sound. I was able to figure out some things with nonverbal cues while watching without sound but others were a bit harder. Here is a bit about my experience:

Without Sound:

-I assumed that two of the main characters were in a romantic relationship because of these nonverbal cues: wedding rings, closeness in proximity (sitting next to each other), touching (hugging, kisses), and sharing a bed.

-I assumed that when the female main character went into work she was meeting with her boss because the other employees appeared to be intimidated by her (quick nods, small smiles, backing away). After the main character sat down, talked on the phone and then spoke with another employee using cues such as raising her eyebrows and putting her hands on her hips I began to think that maybe she was the boss.

-The feelings that I saw expressed through nonverbal cues were: anxiety (shaking of the legs, frowning, using flustered-looking hand gestures), anger (waving hands, frowning, throwing arms up), happiness (smiling, hugging, laughing).

With Sound:

-The show started with the couple waiting for a pregnancy test result and they had appeared to be nervous and anxious; although I assumed that they were married I had thought that they were a newlywed couple. However, when watching with the sound on, I learned that they were celebrating their 7^th wedding anniversary and had been together for a long time.

-When the office scene appeared, I learned that my first assumption about who was boss was correct but that the two female characters were also friends and acted with almost equal authority in the workplace. 

-I had assumed that the female character and male character had their routine established; however, the episode I watched was the female’s first day back at work and the male’s first day as a stay-at-home dad so their routine was actually a new one and they were dealing with the recent changes to their routine.

I think that my assumptions would have been more correct if this was a show that I typically watched because the interactions between the characters would have been easier to interpret; when watching the show with the sound on I was surprised at how far from the plot I was. While I had some of the relationships right, I was wrong about a lot of the contexts and situations. One of my biggest “aha” moments was realizing that I had missed a lot of things because I assumed that the nonverbal behavior would be a substitute for verbal communication but this was a comedy and a lot of the nonverbal cues were sarcastic and had more of a comedic effect when seen with sound. If I watched this show regularly, or even again, I think I would be able to interpret the nonverbal cues a little bit better.

This exercise really opened my eyes to how much importance context and communication are. Just having a glimpse of something with no background knowledge led me to make some assumptions based off of my own perceptions and I learned that nonverbal cues really are ambiguous and can be hard to accurately interpret!