Ch. 6 Five Characteristics of Nonverbal Communication

Nonverbal communiation is a crucial part to our everyday communication. Body language is a type of nonverbal communication that can help get out message across to whom ever we are trying to communicate with. There are five characteristics to nonverbal communication. The first characteristic is the use of nonverbal communication in almost all of our personal conversations. Whether you are talking to your best friend or your boss, you can easily tell how they are feeling just by the tone of their voice, how fast they are speaking and even by their facial expressions. We can even get a sense of the person's nonverbal use when we are talking to them on the phone, texting and emailing. When talking to my mom on the phone I can always tell when she is mad at me just by the pitch and tone she uses when she talks. Likewise, I can always tell when she is trying to be sarcastic because she will use a ; ) wink when she texts me. The second characteristic is the fact that nonverbal communication usually releases more information than the actual words themselves. Our appearance, facial expressions,  gestures, tone and pitch of our voice are all ways that we communicate nonverbally. The third characteristic is that we usually believe someone's nonverbal before we believe the words they are saying. My best friend was very good at sending conflicting messages because I could ask her how she was doing and she would sigh, roll her eyes and she was just fantastic. The fourth characteristic of nonverbal communication is the use of communicating emotion. We can usually tell how someone is feeling just by looking at their facial expressions. When watching an interview on tv or a reality show such as American Idol, the cameraman always shows close ups to get the reactions of the contestants. For instance, when they are down to the bottom three on American Idol and deciding who is going home and at those critical moments they show the person's reaction to capture their emotions. The final characteristic of nonverbal communication is that it metacommunicates the original message. When someone pulls closer to you and whispers information, this sends the message that it is meant to be kept confidential and not to tell anyone else the secret.