The past few weeks, we talked about non-verbal communication, cognitive dissonance and uncertainty reduction. One thing about non-verbal communication, our culture is so good at that; from our nods of “yes” or “no”, our “I don’t know” shoulder shrugs, our eyebrow greeting to our using lips as Global Positioning Systems. But sometimes, non-verbal communication fails us because we are so constrained by society, our roles, our positions and the ‘agents of socialization’.
In my Sociology and Anthropology class, our teacher told us this story about meeting a Muslim speaker at a convention or something. After the event, he wanted to congratulate her, so he did. As he was reaching for a handshake, the Muslim speaker withdrew her hand as to deny him the pleasure of successful non-verbal communication. After that, the speaker thanked my teacher for the gesture of coming over and congratulating her. My teacher was like, “WHAT THE FUDGE?” Her hands displayed an insult but her mouth said otherwise. My teacher then inferred that she refrained herself from physical contact because Muslim culture sees that as a taboo.
After taking the two points of view in non-verbal communication, I then thought that because we live in a society where we are constrained and sometimes coerced by the social constructs that surround us, non-verbal communication, even communication in general could fail as a means of message exchange. Hey, that could be a new theory.
In my SA class, I also got a societal view point about the Uncertainty Reduction Theory. The social structures and constructs also direct the way we act in order to reduce stress and uncertainty. These “agents of socialization”, from birth, tell us our place and how we should act in society. They force us to take up multiple ideal selves, acting gigs and alter egos to fit in. This is explained by the Dramaturgy Theory. Like William Shakespeare once said, “All the world’s a stage.” We are but actors in a play called life. We may have the freedom of choice, but our choices are limited in order to agree with where society has placed us. Then again, we are constrained by our roles and statuses by social constructs, the agents of socialization and the “voice of judgment.”
I’m not dissing the comm theories here. I’m just amazed at how society affects the way these theories work.