In this assignment, we made observations of nonverbal behaviors which are utilized in everyday life as a form of communication whether we know it or not. There are many ways that individuals’ are capable of communicating without even saying anything, such as, an individual rolling their eyes can display they’re annoyed, smiling at someone can portray that the individual is happy, and so on. Nonverbal communication uses many different aspects of life to portray meaning, such as, behaviors, attributes, symbols, or objects (Seiler, Beall, & Mazer, 2015, p. 109). When partaking in this assignment, I found that utilizing nonverbal communication was much easier than verbal, but I did feel peculiar when participating in these acts.
The goal for the assignment was to find a nonverbal norm that we wanted to violate, and then we needed to violate this norm three different times. Once we had violated the norm we needed to observe and analyze the reactions we received. The norms that we had the option to violate were kinesics, oculesics, haptics, etc. I just so happen to pick kinesics, which is using movements or gestures to portray nonverbal communication. The nonverbal rule that I decided to violate was holding a door open for another individual. Typically when referring to this norm individuals’ will hold the door for an individual who is behind them or at least close.
This act can portray many positive perspectives toward an individual, but violating can do the complete opposite. Instead of holding the door for individuals’ I decided that I would instead pull the door shut behind me whether there was somebody behind me or not. The simple task of pulling the door close on another individual can give a poor representation of how . . for a class assignment. This particular situation did not make me feel bad or anything mainly because he was not offended or anything by the situation.
Also I believe the situation went well because of how close my fraternity brother and I are. This assignment just goes to show that even the simplest of nonverbal norms can have a major impact on an individuals’ emotions or perspective of a person. Closing the door on an individual is very frustrating and rude toward the person it is affecting. This assignment has taught me that I need to be aware of how I portray nonverbal communication because it can leave a negative impression on someone, and it can also can harsh relations with individuals’. As a result, I feel that I have bettered my nonverbal communication skills, and I am hoping that these skills will help me properly portray myself in a positive manner.
