6165 Week 2 Blog

The show that I chose to use for this example is called The Middle.  When I was watching with the sound turned off I thought there seemed to be quite a bit of conflict within the family.  The teenage girl in the show used very over-the-top hand gestures and appeared to be yelling.  There always seemed to be someone with a disappointed or upset look on their face.  From the interaction between the oldest male and female characters I would assume they are married.  They had physical contact in the form of hand holding, lived in the same house, and seemed to interact with the children together.

When I turned the sound on and watched the same part of the episode I realized there were some areas where I was right on and others that I missed the mark.  While the teenage girl does appear to be yelling (and she kind of is) she is being goofy and dramatic more than angry or upset.  The body language seemed the same and without the sound I was unable to tell the tone that she spoke with.  The oldest male and female characters were married so I was correct about that.  The assumption that everyone is always fighting was right and wrong.  While they do seem to argue quite a bit I missed the fact that often it is playful banter.  

The tone of the characters and the show led me to believe that they are a close-knit family who jokes around and argues despite my initial reaction that they were angry.

If I watched the show often I think my assumptions would have definitely been more accurate.  It was clear in just a few minutes that they were not angry people.  They are a large family with two working parents and the show seems to chronicle their life as a funny adventure of mishaps.

One thing I realized during this exercise is that while body language and facial expressions tell a lot, they don’t tell everything.  The tone with which one speaks also conveys a lot of our meaning during communication.  The same phrase could be said in a number of different tones and mean a number of different things.