Capstone
Don't Tilt Your Head
This project will provide an overview of new non-verbal behaviors exhibited by America’s young adult females and how these behaviors have been influenced by social media and what messages they portray, both positive and negative. I will look at two theories to decode these new non-verbal cues. Starting with Mimetic Theory, I will determine if these non-verbal behaviors are copied for social gain or are they simply using these cues as communication and engagement under Rhetorical Theory, as they have been for centuries. As part of determining the reason, I developed a method for these young ladies to decode their own non-verbal cues, and then help them refrain or further develop the cues that are favorable for them. The intent is to simply bring these cues to light, provide context and allow the ladies to choose which cues they feel are important to them. I will not be providing any guidance on which cues to use or omit, as that is a personal choice.
Disciplinary Grounding
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Non-verbal cues have been a part of communication for as long as people have been communicating. In a recent study, it was determined that “65%- 95% of communication occurs via nonverbal cues" (Vanessa Van Edwards, 2022). If this is the case, then the vast majority of what we are communicating has nothing to do with the words that we say, and the behaviors we are exhibiting. Decoding the non-verbal behaviors, we exhibit can be crucial to ensuring that the message we want to deliver is in fact the message we are delivering. Preparing our young ladies for their futures is crucial, and learning proper communication skills is paramount.
Another important part of the understanding of these non-verbal cues is how they are learned and for what reason. Many non-verbal cues that people have been exhibiting for years remain the same today, such as eye contact, smiling, head tilting and talking with hands, but a new version of a cue has emerged, which is hair petting and one I noticed in all my subjects who were avid social media users. Connecting the dots of this non-verbal cue to social media and its usage is what I aim to understand.
Social Media Influence
The psychology behind social media’s influence is a component that must be noted, along with how cues have changed or become bolder since people can hide behind the lens and portray themselves as they wish to be portrayed rather than with true authenticity. “These platforms help people project any image they want; they can be whoever and whatever they want to be. Without the ability to receive nonverbal cues, their audiences are none the wiser” (Margalit, e2014). The sole way to receive feedback would be via comments, and those can be ignored, so what is the impact? Less discipline in our communication techniques and the adoption of negative non-verbal cues.
The latest report done by Statista says, “The United States is home to over 302 million social media users at a social networking penetration rate of over 91 percent” (Dixon, 2023). Of the young adult population in the United States, two billion use a social media website for at least 33.1 minutes per day (Zote, 2024). This means that young adults, like those in my study, have 201 hours per year of influence by these social media sites.
Mimetic or Rhetoric Theory
The Mimetic Theory was developed by French Sociologist Rene Girard, and his theory states that “Man is the creature who does not know what to desire, and he turns to others to make up his mind. We desire what others desire because we imitate their desires” (Berkhert et al) In this world of social media and influencers, mixed with marketing aimed to push and push users, I do think a portion of behaviors are driven by desires seen on social media. While one could not assume that all users have the same motivation, there are certainly those that have fame and imitation as their primary driver, with big business also taking full advantage.
On the other hand, when looking at Rhetorical theory which means “discovering all possible means of persuasion” (Griffen et al, 2015) Aristotle developed his three-part theory around appealing to an audience using logical, ethical, and emotional words and movements to appeal to an audience when speaking to them. His theory suggests that the audience must trust the speaker to be persuaded into a belief.
Scope of Study
Since the purpose of this study will focus on non-verbal behaviors and American females, I will narrow my research to primarily American articles. This scope will be imperative as non-verbal cues in the United States versus other countries may have different meanings and connotations for cultural reasons, and therefore would not have any significance to this study. Articles and research outside of the United States based on social media sources and their impact on society may be relevant and used for context around the impact of social media.
The first part of the study will be understanding both positive and negative cues, while the second part will be performing the study and surveying candidates to determine which behaviors are being exhibited most often and if there have been any new cues identified. Once those are determined, I will identify the causation, or where they learned the “cue” and “why” to then relate back towards either theory.
Artifacts
As mentioned above, I will have two components to my artifacts for this Capstone. One artifact will consist of a library of non-verbal cues enabling the reader to understand the various cues and the implications of the cue. The second artifact will be a self-assessment to help the participants actively identify the cues they exhibit. Once the participant has taken the self- assessment and identified their own cues, they can use the library to decode each cue and understand which cues they may want to include, reduce, or eliminate all together so that their non-verbal communication moving forward matches their intentions. These two components will be live and available for any site visitors.
Self-Assessment Quiz
The self-assessment artifact is a power point which allows the subject to easily follow the steps of the quiz in the privacy of their own homes. Since video is a component of the quiz, I find the environment to be a crucial component when viewing oneself as to alleviate anxious tendencies. Eliminating those tendencies will allow the subjects to see their authentic selves more thoroughly and allow them to pinpoint the cues they notice. The videos with which they record will remain their own, thus alleviating the need for releases or disclosures on that portion of the artifact.
Library
The library artifact will consist of a series of pictures of various non-verbal cues, followed by a description of what they can annotate, showing both positive and negative use cases. The point of the library is for participants to identify their own behaviors and make a personal choice as to which cues they want to start using or which cues they liked to omit, based on the video feedback they noticed, personally.
Case Study
Understanding the use of new non-verbal cues is a vital component to my study, and relating back to either theory, therefore doing a case study was another component. I used the same artifacts as mentioned above to perform the case study on members of my selected demographic to attempt to understand which theory is more at play.
The study consisted of six young ladies between the ages of 18-23, from various parts of the country. These ladies did the self-assessment, then I interviewed them personally to understand which non-verbal cues they exhibited. I asked them questions to identify the origin of the cues they exhibited, social media or society, and then attempted to understand the use case of a particular cue to further understand and relate back to either Rhetoric or Mimetic theory.
Summary and Conclusions
Results
In reviewing the results, I noticed similarities amongst the non-verbal cues my subjects saw of themselves as they took the quiz. All of them noted that they displayed head tilting, smiling, and lack of eye contact or sideward glancing during their first take. On their second take, all improved upon eye contact and the attempt to avoid the sideward glance. Being that they all focused on eye contact in the second round, I can deduce that this cue was rated higher in importance than others. The differences I noticed was that those who watch a considerable number of social media do display hair touching or petting as one of their significant non-verbal cues. One subject noted she watches close to 2.5 hours per day of social media. When I started this research, hair petting was a new non-verbal cue I had begun to pay attention to amongst young people and prompted me to pick this as a topic. I see this cue on both TV and in social media and while the cue may look a bit different than traditional petting, the way young girls are using this cue gives the same meaning, insecure, unsure, or anxious. When I asked one subject why she uses this cue, she said she did not realize she was doing it and that it happens subconsciously. When I further probed if she noticed this cue on social media, she said “Yes, I find myself picking up habits and sayings the more I watch” (Carrie, personal communication, 2024).When I look at the subjects who do not use social media, they did not display petting as a non-verbal cue. And when asked where their non-verbal cues come from one said, “watching how my family and leader figures act and observing how their behavior can change the mood and ideas of people around them” (Maya, personal communication, 2024).
Conclusions
In conclusion, I learned that both theories are present amongst my subjects and are both at play throughout their daily lives. In the simplest of terms, I see Mimetic Theory being used by companies and influencers on social media to create and promote potentially unrealistic desires and behaviors upon the subjects viewing the content, which they intern emulate subconsciously, as noted by subject three. While Rhetoric, and its basis for speaking authentically is still a key driver for young adults to learn and mimic influential adults in their lives and a way formulate their own manner of speaking and usage of non-verbal communication, as spoken about by subject one. Social media is clearly an effective tool for influence but not relied upon as a tool to learn how to behave nor communicate. My subjects still rely upon those they revere and idolize for guidance in communication and in life. Learning the non-verbal cues that provide positive, self-assured communication is what these young ladies are seeking and have found at home or at work.All the subjects in my study are lovely young ladies looking to present themselves in a positive, and respected way. They all learned things about themselves via this study and have assured me they will continue to notate and work on their usage of non-verbal communication going forward, so that they can be better communicators with their desired intent. Examination of the application of the theoretical groundingI entered this study thinking that Mimetic Theory and social media were going to be the prevailing influence on the behaviors of these young ladies. While some of my subjects were certainly influenced by their many hours watching social media, and the behaviors they exhibited are indicative of being influenced, they still look to adults around them as people to immolate. What I brought to their attention was not only cues they exhibited on video, but that social media does influence behaviors even if they do not want it to. That was eye opening for a few. I was also able to teach them which cues they may want to use and which they may want to modify, as seen in their desire to conquer eye contact.
Technical lessons
I suffered from some technical challenges along the way. My original intent was to create a quiz that would provide feedback directly to the subjects, but without paying for a subscription, I was limited to having a survey that provides results to the surveyor/ me. My intention with the quiz was to be 100% private and a true self-study, therefore I only wanted results the subjects were willing to share. I did not want to view the videos as I wanted to maintain their privacy and remove some of the anxiety, they may have in participating. I was able to achieve my desired goal by creating a power point quiz. All participants returned the feedback and were successful in completing the quiz. LimitationsThe study was originally going to comprise of twenty women to provide me with a larger sample set, but as I began to elicit the feedback and setup the interviews, I quickly realized that many were not responding and that I would be stuck with the count I ended up with, which was six. While the number was not as I had desired, I was able to interview girls who come from the camp of watching social media and those who do not, which provided me with opposing ideas to learn from. The results are indicative of having a diverse group of ladies from all over the country, of slightly different ages and viewpoints.
Ethical Concern
The intent of this project was to help young ladies identify and understand the non-verbal cues they are using, as many times the cues they were exhibiting were not done with intention. I had to be cautious as to how I expressed the interview questions so as not to indicate any judgment for the cues they may have used. As these cues are personal and can be used for cultural reasons or other personal reasons. I aimed to educate on potential meanings of the cues, so that each person can make their own assessment on which cues to use and if those cues are reflecting what they are trying to say.
Key Takeaways
Many of my subjects were family friends, and while I had known most of them, I was not prepared for how serious they took this study and how impactful they felt learning these non-verbal cues were for them as they move from college into the working world. There is a misconception about these young ladies that their interests are all looks/makeup/hair while that is not the case. They are simply navigating a new world with social media at their fingertips and deciphering who to emulate and to whom not. I do not envy their position and am happy to help them decipher how to present themselves as the most confident version of themselves.
Revisions
After digesting the findings, I realized that I could have focused more on one aspect rather than trying to decipher the theory at play, the influence and where it comes from, the cues used and how to help these girls decipher their cues. Simply focusing on the girls and their subconscious cues and the influence of social media would have been fascinating enough. Another interesting point of view would have been using the Mimetic Theory from the business/influencer agenda. While I touch on this being a factor, that is certainly worthy of studying more, as that theory is proven from that perspective.
