There was an article on the WSJ about how the current generation, with all the texting, emailing, blogging, tweeting, facebooking, etc., could be missing out on nonverbal cues. For example, I was shocked to read that teenagers send and receive an average of 2,272 texts per month! They mentioned how some workplaces are even not allowing laptops, calling them "topless meetings." In fact, topless meetings had been a word of the year in 2008. Bauerlein says,
quote:
With a device close by, attendees at workplace meetings simply cannot keep their focus on the speaker. It's too easy to check email, stock quotes and Facebook. While a quick log-on may seem, to the user, a harmless break, others in the room receive it as a silent dismissal. It announces: "I'm not interested." So the tools must now remain at the door.
Bauerlein cites the importance of nonverbal communication:
quote:
Back in 1959, anthropologist Edward T. Hall labeled these expressive human attributes "the Silent Language." Hall passed away last month in Santa Fe at age 95, but his writings on nonverbal communication deserve continued attention. He argued that body language, facial expressions and stock mannerisms function "in juxtaposition to words," imparting feelings, attitudes, reactions and judgments in a different register.
This is why, Hall explained, U.S. diplomats could enter a foreign country fully competent in the native language and yet still flounder from one miscommunication to another, having failed to decode the manners, gestures and subtle protocols that go along with words. And how could they, for the "silent language" is acquired through acculturation, not schooling. Not only is it unspoken; it is largely unconscious. The meanings that pass through it remain implicit, more felt than understood.
I think he has a point, and I've seen the distraction problem in meetings and at conferences. On the other hand, I wonder if nonverbal communication is really affected all that much; my gut reaction would be that it's not.This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kalleh,
