My Ethnographic Experience: Family Group Tract

For my ethnographic experience, I decided to focus on my family. More specifically, I decided to focus on how my family interacts through texting in our family group-chat and how they interact in person. From this, my aspiration is to be able to spot the differences and the similarities that emerge upon analyzing the communication of one group between two mediums. Furthermore, I focused on writing and talking as my family communicated. There are six people in my immediate family. Our group consists of 4 “children” who are fifty percent Irish and fifty percent Italian, and two parents, one being one hundred percent Italian and the other being one hundred percent Irish. The ages range from sixteen to fifty-four. We live in a modest home

In my notes, I wrote of the disappointment and hurt I felt due to, in my opinion, the poor response time. I do not usually feel this way and I know people are not attached for to their phones, so why did I expect a response so quickly? Taking into consideration my brother’s odd response and my parents messages, I realized I code-shifted out of the group discourse. This message would be acceptable in a group-chat with my friends, although, it does not belong in the “fam” group-chat, which accounts for quick informational messages, and certainly not for small talk. It was found through later analysis that the group-chat typically receives quick informational texts. This was the reason I was hurt after a couple of minutes of not being responded to in the family group-chat. This idea of quick information and quick answers may be seen through a situation that happened not long after I sent my text. My sister sent news that she was named captain of her soccer team. Everyone but me in the group-chat responded, including my mother who was with her. I was still hurt, my message was not received as well as I had

My mom may be seen as the one who brings up tense situations. She is an excellent communicator in text and in person, and without my mom, one might question if the group would talk about our feelings or uncomfortable situations. She encompasses the ability to bring up conversations delicately, and tends to create an environment where one feels safe. Furthermore, she uses proper language in both texting and as she is speaking, which could be a result of her speech pathologist training. As I was observing, I became keenly aware of her communication skills. As she brought up information, she would used “I” language. As a case in point, she would say phrases such as, “I feel as though…," or “When this happened…it made me feel this