Non-Verbal Communication - Reflections on watching a TV program without sound

I chose to watch an episode of the show ‘Still Standing. The main characters in the story seemed to be a family of five; the Mom, the Dad, two daughters and a son.  In addition, in this episode there were two additional characters who I assumed to be a friend of the Mom’s and a neighbor of the family. During the most of their interactions with each other, the family seemed to become frustrated with each other easily. This was visible in their facial expressions and in their body language. During several instances throughout the program, anger and frustration were visible in the Mom’s face, in the son’s face and the older daughter’s face. The Dad is smiling throughout most of the show and he seemed to use humor in his interactions. Both the Mom and Dad seemed to use sarcasm in their interactions with each other. Mom seemed to be the most expressive through the use of her facial expressions, especially the use of eyes such as eye rolls and raised eyebrows. A look of shock, disbelief and anger is seen in the Mom’s face when she discovers both the son and Dad at their neighbor’s house giving her admiring glances when they were supposedly helping her out. The Mom’s friend looked worried about something as she sat in the family’s kitchen talking to the Mom. The family can also be seen using various hand gestures to stress the point their making. For example the Dad is trying to take the younger daughter’s temperature and it seems the older daughter is doubtful that he knows what he is doing. He puts up his hand as if to say ‘wait a minute, I know what I am doing’. In another instance, the older daughter is seen addressing the parents with both hands on her hips as if in anger and frustration. In another instance, the son shakes his head as if to say no when both his parents at different times seem to offer him advice and help with his school work. 

          My assumptions about the relationships between the family members was accurate although the lady the Dad and son were helping out were not a neighbor they knew as I had assumed but someone the son found to help out for community service. My general assumptions about the plot were accurate, such as the son and Dad ‘helping out’ the lady just to admire her and the Mom being upset at discovering it. There were several parts of the plot I missed, such as the Mom being unhappy and unwilling to deal with the fact that her little boy is growing up and is becoming a man. My assumption that the Mom’s friend was talking to her about a problem was also accurate. I feel like I was able to make many accurate assumptions about the main characters and overall plot of the show just by observing their non-verbal behaviors. However, by watching the show with the sound on, I realized that there were several aspects to the story I missed which were revealed when I listened to the verbal communication between the characters. For example, I assumed the parents were trying to help the son with homework, when he was actually looking for community service jobs. I feel my assumptions about this show would have been more accurate if it was a show I watched regularly because I would have a better understanding about the dynamics between the characters.

         I truly enjoyed this assignment and what I realized by doing it was the importance of both non-verbal and verbal skills in our communication. If the characters had not used as many non-verbal skills as they did, I would not have been able to make as many assumptions about the characters and plot as I was able to in this case when watching without sound. When I actually listened to the communications that took place among the characters in the show I realized that the verbal communication added significantly to the plot some of which I had missed by just observing non-verbal behavior. I think that the use of both non-verbal skills as well as verbal skills is essential for communicating effectively and being effectively understood by the listener.