Nonverbal Communication

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Nonverbal communication is something that we all use.  In fact, “75 to 95 percent of our total communication” is nonverbal (Burch 129).  Simply put, nonverbal communication is communicating without words.  Examples of this type of communication include the way a person is dressed, facial expressions, gestures, environment, eye contact, and paralanguage.  In this activity, I observed the nonverbal communication of two different people.  I will tell about what I observed and try to interpret what I saw. 

            The first person I observed was an older man at the Upper Valley Mall.  He was sitting on a bench outside of Macy’s at 2 P.M.  The first thing I noticed about him was his physical appearance.  He was white, with short white hair and a neatly trimmed white mustache.  He also wore round glasses.  He was average in height and he seemed to be physically fit for his age, which was probably 60 to 65.  Wearing khaki pants and a blue button down shirt, he sat with his legs and arms crossed.  The man was most often straight-faced and he seemed to be bored.  This gave me the impression that he did not wish to speak to anyone.  He did not seem angry, in fact, he seemed pleasant and very much attentive of his proximity with other people.  Proximity refers to the “amount of space or distance between people” (Burch 135).  The zone he was most often in was the public zone, a zone of about 12 to 25 feet where “there typically isn’t a relationship between the parties involved” (Burch 136).    

            The man kept glancing at his watch every minute or so.  This could mean that he was nervous; however, I think he was waiting on someone, such as his wife.  A woman passed by him with a baby boy and the man smiled and waved to the child.  She walked close by and entered the man’s social zone, a 4 to 12 foot area in which we communication is “typically impersonal” (Burch 136).  The man used a playfulness touch, a form of touch that is light and can show that your are “trying to be affectionate” (Burch 135).  I do not think they knew each other because they did not speak and the woman kept walking.  I would bet that the man has children and even grandchildren by the way he briefly interacted with the baby.