Wednesday, February 6, 2013

iExamen 1


Tommy Ireland

Dr. Ellis

Understanding Literature

7 February 2013

iExamen

            Wow, this exercise was so interesting and so much fun to do.  I actually am very conscious of how I act around others and have been interested in documenting how I react and use body language, speech, texting, and other forms of communicating.  This exercise allowed my curiosity to expand to a whole new level and explore the many ways I communicate with others.  I am really fortunate to be able to do this examen. 
            I started this examen very excited.  I began on Wednesday January 6th.  I noticed right off the bat that my entire form of communication with my close friends was so much different from how I communicated with people I was not friends with.  With my friends, I noticed how much body movement I used.  When I would see my close friends, I sometimes would move all around, such as dip my shoulders or jump around.  This sounds rather strange but my friends understand my absurd humor.  I also sometimes would change the tone of my voice when saying hello or hi to them.  I would sometimes say it in a very low-pitched voice or an extremely high-pitched voice.  I think the more friendly and happy looking the friend, the more energy I used to greet them.  When a close friend walked by that seemed to be a little tired or not in a great mood, I would great them with less body movements and less energy.  From greeting my close friends, I learned that I use a lot of movements and gestures that are completely random that usually are a reflection of the energy levels of the other person.  Before this examen, I always thought of myself to just be random and goofy but learned that it usually is a response to my environment, in this case, my close friends. 
            I also noticed how I greeted my peers that were not my close friends.  Normally, when I saw someone I knew but was not friends with them, I would raise my right hand and wave and say hey.  I, for some reason, said hey in a very weak and timid tone.  I guess it is because of the unexpectedness of seeing that one person and also not feeling completely comfortable enough to greet them with more energy. 
            For both types of people, I noticed that I only said what was exactly on my mind when my close friends were around.  I reserved a lot of things when having conversation with the people I was not close friends with.  This does not seem to be out of the ordinary at all.  The next thing I did was to observe how I talked on the phone/texted.
            On the phone, I talked pretty loud and joked around a lot.  It was a lot different because you cannot see how the person reacts physically since you are only on the phone.  You could however detect the mood the person was in by judging the tone of the voice.  Therefore, you could know what to say according to the tone of voice.  I learned with calling I base a lot of what I am going to say off of the tone of the other person’s voice.  I also learned that once again with communication, I base a lot of what I do off of the other person.  With texting, you cannot detect the tone of voice.  Therefore, I leave out a lot of emotion in texting since communicating with people for me is based on their body language and tone of voice.  I use basic responses and try not to have anything serious said and figured out over texting. 
            During the time period of when I didn’t have a phone, I seemed to have a lot more focus on everything I did.  Walked, talked, and many other things I did all had complete attentiveness.  I honestly enjoyed it so much. My communication with others was much stronger because I had more attention and time for them.  I did not have to look down to check my messages or check facebook randomly during a conversation.  I got to have a natural interaction with the people around me and it felt amazing.  I am not saying that I completely rely on technology, but I did notice that it impairs my ability to fully express myself and communicate with others.  I noticed also that I felt more free.  I felt like I did not have any constraints around my actions and thoughts.  I was free to think and act on my own time, not by my phone or computer’s time. 
            Once I got back to using technology, I noticed that I did not use it nearly as much as I previously did.  I started using technology only when I absolutely had to.  The result of this was some people getting annoyed that I was not responding to their texts and calls!  However, I think it was so worth it.  I definitely learned that technology prevents me from expressing myself to my fullest and being able to communicate clearer. 
            Going into this examen, I was excited to learn about how I communicate with others.  I honestly was not sure what I was going to learn from doing this.  I learned a great deal about myself.  The main key thing I learned about myself is that I react most of the time based on how other people’s body language, voice, and other actions are presented.  I never knew I was so reflective of my environment.  I also learned that technology really does have a negative impact on my life.  It distracts me and makes me miss out on observing what is going on in the world around me at times.  I am really glad I learned about the technology aspect because I feel like I was becoming more and more dependent on socializes via cell phone and computer.  It feels so natural to communicate in person and also is just flat out more fun to also!  I am so happy I got to do this examen.  I learned about other people but more importantly, I learned about how I communicate with others and how technology is a huge distraction.  I feel very privileged to have been able to participate in this exercise. 

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