Wednesday 27 November 2013

Eavesdropping

1. i) To eavesdrop, I wandered aimlessly, resting occasionally in populous areas of hallways and the cafeteria.
    ii) Most conversations I could effectively hear and record for under a minute, and I usually spent around five minutes listening, depending on whether I deemed the conversation to be active and interesting.
    iii) All the conversations I intercepted were between students. 
    iv) It was interesting recording conversation. I suppose it felt a little sneaky, akin to a spy movie; quietly observing and recording my observations, unbeknownst to the subjects of my listening.

2. Often people were unaware that others outside the security of their friends were listening, and it seemed that their filter would shut of when they thought no one was listening, though this seems obvious. I found that in conversations, one or two people would usually dominate the conversation, and others would simply go along with it, without speaking much. Sometimes it was also apparent that people were not really engaged or listening, for various reasons: some were studying, and others seemed to like the sound of their own voice.

3. It can be useful in writing dialogue to understand that most people change how they speak depending on the audience. Also, conversations can be quite drab and without substance if the people conversing are disengaged, or have nothing of interest to talk about. People often also enter a conversation with a particular mood or motive in their speech, which is difficult for others to affect with any opposing or neutral opinion.

4. Dialogue reveals personalities by the way those conversing listen and speak. Often a person with a dominant personality will speak more than listen, whether they have wisdom in the subject they speak about or not. A thoughtful person may listen more intently and pause before speaking to think and process their words carefully. Even tone of voice can reveal a person's personality. For example, someone who speaks with sass and talks a lot is likely overly confident, and possibly opinionated. If a person is overly agreeable and quick to se ind a statement, they may have low confidence and seek acceptance by agreeing with everything a person say in hopes that the agreement will build a connection between the two. They will likely change what they say in order to make sure that their opinion matches yours, rather than back f a solid opinion of their own. All in all, there is a lot to learn about a person simply by listening to the way they speak.

5. I find that in conversations involving several people, often two people will take charge of the conversation and speak most. It becomes difficult to communicate effectively in this environment as everyone has their own opinion, and as a result each person is trying to pull the conversation in a different direction. Often this will result in a competitive atmosphere  in which introverts will not speak out, resulting in feeling left out of the conversation, while the extroverts struggle to have their voices heard, some even wanting to be the centre of attention even if they don't have anything logical to share. Conversation can easily become convoluted and innefective with many participants and no moderation. Patient voices will go unheard, and opinions will be buried.

7. I feel that written conversations often have more siren iron and purpose. This is because life is complicated. In any given day, a person may have hundreds of interactions on different levels with many people. However, if a writer were to create a television show about a detective solving crime, he will likely leave out a brief interaction between the detective and his mailman. This is because this interaction doesn't matter. It does not contribute to the plot in any way, it it just a simple, unrelated occurance. It is for the same reason that on television or in movies you don't often see any scenes involving characters waking up, relieving themselves or thing their shoes. These are all things that don't often contribute to the plot and are just extra information that wastes time in the show or movie. 
Often in life, we have interactions that are simply empty conversations, void of substance. Also, we will have many interactions in a day, not necessarily related or following a theme. So, I find that written conversations are more purposeful, as only the important interactions to the plot need to be mentioned in a story.

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