Part 1: This experiment was pretty easy. The person I had a conversation with was even more expressive because I was giving her facial feedback and that got me more engaged even though I wasn't even speaking. If two people were interacting together for the first in this type of situation it would make both parties uncomfortable. The expressive/ symbolic culture would be more at ease when speaking of complex ideas am. Like, the symbolic person would be very thoughtful and well understood while the non-symbolic person was just looked at as weird.
Part 2: I was able to last the full 15 minutes off and on, I spent most of the time trying to pull myself together and not laugh that the situation at hand. The most difficult thing was not using expression that would add a deeper element of understanding to the conversation. She was not able to connect with me in this time of communication and her eyes glazed over because she was not involved, she said that it seemed like I wasn't even talking to her. Eye contact was also extremely awkward.
Our non-speech communication is so important because many people thrive on that connection to get the main point across.
Yes there are definitely people that have trouble reading body language excluding people that might have had autism that grew up with non- expressive parents. A benefit to not reading body language environmentally could come about with hunting.
Part 3: No I think written language would have been a distraction to the flow of the story that my conversational partner was sharing with me.
It gives people a outlet to express themselves when other people might read there body cues or expressive cues in a hazardous way.
Through written language people have been able to write down exactly what they mean because they have had time to run the idea through their mind over and over to get to the main point. Written language has also been a catalyst for dialogue among people which in turn pushes people to think differently. This has therefore gotten people to express themselves in a different way.
"...the symbolic person would think the non-symbolic person was weird." Very true. We tend to think less of people who can't communicate verbally as we do and often think them weird or even less intelligent. Why is that?
ReplyDeleteWhat did you mean by "eye contact was awkward"? A lot of students mentioned this. I'm trying to figure out the implications.
I'm intrigued by your suggestion that it would be beneficial to not read body language during hunting. Can you expand on that?
I am interested in your contention that written language would have been a distraction. I agree that it would have slowed down the conversation and stopped the flow of your partner's words, but what about the advantage of YOU communicating more effectively? You wouldn't have appreciated this benefit?
How has written language impacted the spread of ideas around the world (globalization)?
Very interesting opinions and ideas. Good post.
You mentioned that your partner's eyes glazed over and she felt and if you were not even talking to her in Part 2. My partner said the same thing, that it was like holding a conversation with a robot because of my lack of expression. You said that it would be beneficial to not show body language when hunting. That is something I haven't thought about, can you elaborate?
ReplyDeleteThat's really interesting that you had an easy time with the first part of the experiment. My thought is that you must be a really non-verbally expressive person. I got so frustrated with that part because I couldn't get more than basic information across. And the hunting idea is a really interesting concept. I would like to echo Peabeen's comment on elaboration. It's a fascinating idea and I think you may be right in terms of hunting being a good area where the ability to read body language may not be helpful. Would leads me to another event using guns where reading body language may not be useful and may just get in the way; war.
ReplyDeleteEveryone's questioning the hunting thing. I'm going to use my imagination here. If body language is inclusive of things like the expression of pain, suffering, fear, and general distress, then maybe it would be beneficial to a hunter to ignore these signs for brutality's sake. If seeing and understanding these signs of weakness in animals or people, our empathy may make it difficult or even prevent us from making any moves to cause further distress. If the goal of a hunter is to slaughter, perhaps empathy would be a hindrance.
ReplyDeleteYour comments about written language being a distraction reminds me of years ago before I had a headset with working microphone. I'm very into PC-gaming and the people I'd play with had working headsets and could easily communicate with each other. Me, on the other hand, bogged everything down with my need to use text. My attempts at a real-world example. I make myself sick.
Cool post!
@ L Rodriguez
ReplyDelete"We tend to think less of people who can't communicate verbally as we do and often think them weird or even less intelligent. Why is that?"
I think this notion of communication efficiency being linked to weirdness or being less intelligent because it challenges human connectedness when communicating. That might be a reason as to why people tend to hang out with people that are just like themselves. Best friends tend to laugh at the same jokes and talk in the same matter; we are put more at ease with the familiar.
"What did you mean by "eye contact was awkward"? A lot of students mentioned this. I'm trying to figure out the implications."
The eye contact felt very awkward because it I didn't even feel like I was talking to her (my communication partner) I felt like talking through her because we weren't connected. There was no peak in the information I was sharing with her so I felt I wasn't even there and then I suddenly started to get really tired.
"I am interested in your contention that written language would have been a distraction. I agree that it would have slowed down the conversation and stopped the flow of your partner's words, but what about the advantage of YOU communicating more effectively? You wouldn't have appreciated this benefit?"
I can naturally talk way more than I should in a given situation so it was nice to not have to further the conversation on my own. I also made that statement because people tend to naturally explain situations in the order of understanding it. Like with my partner she told me about a trip she took to go to Nigeria. She started off skipping back and forth with events because she was excited about them. She then got to this point where all the answers that popped up in my mind to ask her were quickly answered with her next sentence. This reminded me that many people are naturally good essay constructors, we have a topic/claim, tell why it is important, then go on to prove it and conclude it without even thinking hard.
"How has written language impacted the spread of ideas around the world (globalization)?"
Written language has impacted the world with cooking. Even though cooking is a language in it of itself, the writing down of recipes has helped in a domination of many world cuisines (i.e French).
@ Peabeen and @ MartaMe
erica grise said it eloquently.
@ erica grise
You hit the nail right on the head!