Communication through "New Girl"

I chose to watch an episode of “New Girl” because I have never watched it before and have heard it is often funny.  In the episode I watched, I would say the four people have close relationships and two of them even appear to be a steady couple.  With the sound off, it appeared the three men and woman seem to get along very well, for the most part.  They expressed various nonverbal feelings and behaviors.  I observed knowing looks, smiles and looks of concerns, especially with the couple.  I also observed eye to eye contacts and eyes that avoided eye contact.  I also saw two of the men talking and then looking back at the couple and lower their heads to talk while still discreetly looking back at the couple, as if they were trying to keep a secret from them.  I also saw one of individuals eating her cereal slowly and looking down and then putting both hands in her head as if she were very sad.  And another man petting his cat with a serious look on his face and then another scene having his cat in a carrier at a pet store looking concerned as if his cat were sick.

 

After watching the same episode again, this time with the volume on.  Most of the assumptions I made were accurate, while some were not so accurate.  While it appeared everyone in the episode got along well, I discovered one man did not want the couple dating and tried to sabotage their relationship and when the other coupled discovered this, they were more annoyed with the man named, Schmidt.  I was right about the woman being sad, as she was having some issues with her boyfriend.  I was also right about the two men wanting to keep a secret from the couple, as it was Schmidt talking about how to break the couple up with his other roommate.  As for the roommate with the cat, well his cat was not sick, as I had thought, he was getting ready to have his cat neutered and wanted his cat to experience being with another cat before he had his cat ‘fixed.’ So, of course, my assumptions would have been more correct had I been watching this show well all along.  My insights about communication have been reinforced by doing this activity, because just like making assumptions about a show in its third season and how everyone’s relationships are with others, is the same with getting to know families and their children and thinking we know more about them than what we do based on our assumptions and little time spent with them.  This activity show just how important effective communication is in getting the whole picture and not making assumptions, but getting the facts.