Silence

Silence in classes may cause awkwardness or consequences. An example of awkwardness in a class happened to me last year. The class was discussing the reluctance of heterosexual males and females to be romantically involved with each other. I suggested that males and females who grow up with each other may look at the other person as being like a brother or sister, so they do not want to lose that relationship. The professor and the rest of the class were quiet for about five seconds. This created awkwardness because I had a different view point on the topic. Silence may cause consequences in classes when students are unprepared for class discussions, which may lead to a pop quiz or extra work for the class.
Silence in conversations with friends creates awkwardness as well. My friend Corey was dropping me off at home after a party, and during the car ride home, there was silence for about three minutes. This rarely happens with most of my other friends because we are interested in the same sports, so we would not run out of ideas to discuss. However, Corey is not a big sports fan. I ended the silence by bringing up a topic about music, which I knew would work because he played the guitar in a band. This differed from silence in classes because there were no serious consequences caused by the silence.
Silence at home may signal anger, awkwardness, consequences, or disappointment. This happened to me when I came home at 6:00 a.m. without telling my mother that I was spending the night at a friend’s house. The silence lasted about 10 seconds before she asked me where I was and why I did not call. This conveyed to my mother that I was irresponsible by handling the situation this way. I did not feel too bad because I was 18 years old, so there was no curfew for me to worry about. However, I understood her view point of the situation. This differed from silence in the classroom because the consequences resulted in her not trusting me on a personal level, and the professor will not trust students on a professional level when the students do not participate in class discussions. This differed from silence with friends because the awkwardness with Corey could be broken by bringing up almost any topic, but this could not be done with the silence at home.