I chose to watch an episode that my teenage daughter
watches frequently, Pretty Little Liars.
As I watched the episode without sound I was profoundly aware of body language
and facial expressions. The show appeared
predominately about four teenage girls. I
gathered from the setting and the body language that they were close friends. In the beginning the girls were sitting
around talking and a list one of them had.
The expressions from one friend to another were quite different. While one friend’s facial expression appeared
to be happy, another was rolling their eyes.
It was definitely an expression filled dialogue. The whole episode was hard to follow without
sound, because it kept jumping from scene to scene. However, through body language and facial
expressions, I was able to conclude that the girls were in some sort of trouble
or had many struggles they were facing.
As I watched the episode again with sound, I found
that many of my observations and assumptions were close to my original
observations without sound. The
characters were involved in some trouble that they were trying to hide, as well
as some trouble that they were each trying to uncover. Body language was very expressive throughout
the episode. Each of the actors showed
looks of happiness, worry, fear, disgust and annoyance throughout the
episode. My assumptions would have been
more accurate if I had been watching a show that I was familiar with versus one
in which I have never watched before.
This experience was very enlightening for me. By only watching body language and facial
expressions the characters revealed much about the story line. It is
amazing what these two things can say without the use of words. My “aha” moment came from this thought in
thinking about my own facial expressions and body language when speaking to
others. I need to be very aware of what
my body and face are saying as well as the words coming out of my mouth.
I never had a chance to watch that show, but I love the fact that you was able to exprience good nonverbal communication. through this assignment I saw that we learn alot from nonverbal clues. Thank you for sharing your experience.
ReplyDeleteHi Erika
ReplyDeleteI watch this show as well with my nieces, and I have to agree with you with both the nonverbal and verbal communications of the cast. If the the cast could see their facial expressions they would change them, they give the wrong impressions sometimes. I am learning not to wear what I am thinking on my face.
I had the same aha moment when watching Revenge this week. I had to realize that I may make some facial expressions that could come off the wrong way. I know that my body language can come across the wrong way at times. I wear my heart on my sleeve and I really want to make sure that I do not offend others. I also think it is best to keep some of my thoughts to myself, and my nonverbal cues can offend invite questions that I do not care to answer.
ReplyDeleteI took a class on Friday regarding how to administer the Ages and Stages Questionnaire for Social and Emotional Development. As a part of the class we talked about controlling facial expressions and gestures while communicating scoring and outcomes with parents, especially when the child needs to be referred for a problem area. I know that I tend to wear my heart on my sleeve and know that I need to be very vigilant about my body language and facial expressions.
ReplyDeleteWhen there are no sounds in the TV show, facial expressions and body languages become extremely important to get information about the show. Sometimes we can get plenty information from the body language to know what's going on in the episode. I watched a group of people discussing certain topics. I guess it didn't show me as much information as it would be from a TV episode, but still enough to let me realize how important nonverbal communication is.
ReplyDeleteLufei