Non-Verbal Communication

Non-verbal Communication can be defined as all the messages that are not encoded with words. As a result persons can communicate non-verbally through: Kinesics which is how we communicate with our bodies; Proxemics which is how we communicate with space; as well as appearance, color and time. These various mediums of non-verbal communication offer numerous advantages as people judge effective communication on the things not said, rather on how they are said. Studies have shown that a large amount of the total impact of any given message consists of non-verbal factors. Unfortunately lack of the spoken word for clarification often lead to various misunderstandings as we will later discuss.

Have you ever heard the statement "It's not what you say but how you say it"? Have you ever thought about the implications of this sentence in relation to communication? You see, with non-verbal communication your attire and body language do the speaking for you. Imagine this:

I come here to do this speech and I look in the crowd, stare at all the faces and say in a dreary monotone:" I am so happy to be here" at the same time my clothes are not presentable, my arms are drooped, I'm slouching and I cannot maintain eye-contact for more than 3 seconds. In addition to that I position myself at the farthest point on the platform away from the audience. Would you find me convincing? Hardly so. Why? My body language indicates otherwise. While the spoken words say I am happy to be present my body language indicates I would rather be anywhere but here.

Given this scenario is this negative or positive of non-verbal communication. Let's discuss. What are the advantages as well as the disadvantages of non-verbal communication?

By processing messages by body language, eye contact, facial expressions and gestures - non verbal communication be in fact very useful.