I am not a 'TV Person' so it was difficult thinking and arriving at a show to see. Thanfully, I decided to see Bisi Olatilo Show. The show is owned by a Nigerian and operates in Nigeria, UK and the US. I saw the wedding ceremony of the daughter of the Nigerian President.
As a wedding ceremony, it is obvious the bride and groom are not too familiar with some of the guests.
When the volume of the TV was turned down, I could see the expressions of fear, suspect and tiredness on the bride's face. One would have thought that the bride should be happy all through the event but she was at one time or the other looking rather scared. And her guests at sometime or the other were either frowning, laughing or dancing. From the looks on the guests faces, I guess the wedding ceremony had lasted for too long
My major observation is that if I didn't turn down the volume of the television, I would have been carried away by the boisterious noise and activities going on that I wouldn't have taken notice of the nonverbal communication. Like O'Hair & Wiemann (2011)said, most times verbal communication contradicts nonverbal communication. Though the atmosphere was supposed to be joyful, people still expressed their frustrations which means communication to an extent is an involuntary action.
With the volume turned on, it was something different; I concentrated on the verbal communication more than the nonverbal communication. I could relate the joyful music with the joyful atmosphere and did observe facial expressions or body movement less than when the volume was turned off.
The expressions on the bride's face could be that of anxiety but I assume she must be tired due to the stress of the day. Due to the security unrest in Nigeria for sometime now, she might be habouring the fear of an attack. My assumptions might be wrong or right. It only shows how people read different meanings to the same circumstance.
Reference
O'Hair, D., Friedrich, G. W., & Dixon, L. D. (2011). Strategic communication in business and the professions. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Toluwalope, I have to say this was an interest assignment. You can definitely see the difference between without sound to sound. Also, without the sound made my senses keener. I found myself being very attentive and observing pretty much everything in order to attain a perception. Thanks for sharing a lovely blog post!
ReplyDeleteHi Toluwalope. I like how you took note of the change that you had in listening versus watching with the various sound levels. It is true how we tend to dull out other senses when we predominantly use one and how reliant we are on our senses and without one, would alter our perception entirely.
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