Day: July 25, 2021

intervention 4: explore with stakeholder about the impact of seating arrangements on communication

here is their seat arrangement in their family:

Laissez-faire type:

Pluralistic type:

Consensual type:

Protective type:

Reflection

From the previous research, it was found that Protective type and Laissez-faire type lacked communication, and during the discussion, I found that in these two type family, there is usually a seating arrangement at the dining table. Their seats are arranged according to the family seat, but this is unconscious

In the other two types：Consensual and Pluralistic, they rarely have fixed seats, and they do not arrange seats according to family status. They communicate more with their family members, less conflicts, and have a good relationship with family members.

So I think the seat arrangement and family status and rights hinder the communication between children and parents to some extent, and Communication will be affected by power. If I want to promote communication between different generations, I must first make them aware of this problem. So how can we make people aware of this problem? This will be my next intervention

Next step and ideas:


My previous interventions focused on how to reduce the conflict between different generations, but I found that communication is a long-term process，this problem cannot be changed in the short term. And I also found that if two people disagree, you can hardly expect a decent response from the other person. Normally, he will defend himself and try to lead your thinking and judgments astray. A few months later, when the old words are brought up again, you will find that no one has changed their minds, as if the previous argument has never happened. 

So in the next intervention, I will first throw a question or point of view to the other person, let him think or study carefully, don’t worry about asking the answer, let him digest it in his mind first, and challenge his original concept. ( inspired by the book: The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe)

I will design a dining table. This is not an ordinary dining table, but a dining table that can reflect the status of the family. I will place it downstairs in my house or in the park, so that people passing by can think about the meaning of the dining table, and interview their feelings. I will make the next intervention based on the feedback I get.

stakeholders: user + expert

Over the past few weeks I have been actively trying to develop a network of who have difficult to communicate with their parents to engage in my project. So far, four users and one expert have participated in my project. They will discuss with me the communication mode in their own home and the future family communication mode.

User: These four users come from different family communication patterns：protective, consensual, laissez faire and pluralistic.

expert: This expert comes from the rca service design profession. Junyi Cao is a creative and energetic service designer with the background in product design. She has been exploring the relationship between people and studying how to deal with the relationship between people delicately, so that this relationship is at a balance point. In her past project, Junyi and her team members have insights into the weakness of online participants in the actual hybrid conference, and tried to reduce this sense of difference, so as to achieve the effect of improving the efficiency of the conference.(about her project: When we talk and meet people face to face, we get most of the information about what they are thinking from body language and facial expressions. In a virtual environment, we get much less information, and we need more times to confirm the other’s attitude. Because there is less interaction, remote participants feel lonely and alienated, and they will be easier distracted than offline. We believe that increasing the viscosity of the meeting will help solve the above problems.)

I think she can give me useful feedback and opinions in my project in the future.

Reflection

From the survey results, it is found that most people have to communicate with their family members at the table，and most people have fixed seats at the dinner table at home. There is no doubt that eating is a good time for communication. I think the time for eating can be fully used to help them communicate.

However, there is usually an unspoken seating arrangement at the Chinese dining table. This arrangement is a marker of hierarchical, honor and patriarchal structures in Chinese families, a reminder of one’s place at home.The guests of lowest position sit furthest from the seat of honor. When a family holds a banquet, the seat of honor is for the guest with the highest status and the head of the house takes the least prominent seat.

So I think the seat arrangement and family status and rights hinder the communication between children and parents to some extent.

Next step, I will use the time at the dinner table to promote communication between children and parents, so that they can communicate more effectively without rights and family status, and at the same time combine the knowledge I gained from the book 《shared experiences in human communication》 I read before. : Non-verbal and verbal communication, conscious and unconscious communication.

Book “Shared Experiences in Human Communication”

At first, I understood that communication is the exchange and transmission of information. It was not until I read the book “Shared Experiences in Human Communication” that I could really understand the process of re-understanding communication from a very basic level.

reflection

The following is my reflection after reading this book：

  • The concept of communication encompasses the process by which all people influence each other.
  • How different communication methods will reflect different person relationships.
  • Non-verbal communication basically defines the interpersonal relationship between each other.
  • Although language can be used to communicate almost everything, nonverbal responses only have a relatively limited range of communication. Nonverbal responses are often used to communicate feelings, preferences and preferences, and to emphasize or refute to correct those feelings communicated with language. Non-verbal communication can superimpose another layer of meaning on top of verbal information.
  • When interpersonal communication forces participants to accept the pressure of interacting with the future, interpersonal communication is destructive, because it makes participants more vulnerable; when interpersonal communication only enhances the spread of information does not affect the value and attitude behind people When interpersonal communication is neutral; when interpersonal communication is regarded as curative, it means that it inspires an individual’s insight into or readjustment to the world, and it allows people to carry out future developments in a more satisfying way. Social interaction.
  • Intentional and unintentional communication. A lot of our daily communication is consciously motivated. For example, if we want to impress in front of a special person, we will change into carefully selected clothes when we go out. However, we have learned from the advertisements selling toothpaste and mouthwash. Although exquisite clothes can convey a good impression, bad breath and unclean teeth will still unintentionally reveal their less satisfactory side. . Unintentional communication is undoubtedly the most maddening communication method, because you will not receive corrective feedback from others. When we are well-dressed but still unable to date the person we like, we will feel very confused, but in fact this is not due to the clothes