Further Discussion

One concept in which I feel can use further discussion is gender roles as a performance in society. I know the book covers it, but felt as if we could have discussed it more in the blog postings. Gendered roles in societies, not just our own but all around the world, fulfil certain roles and acts in communication. I feel as if people get treated differently, worse or better, because of their gender, and in certain societies, if they are themselves, then their lives would be much different than if they were in the United States.

I think the book, as well as a couple more postings, should have asked questions like "how would being a homosexual affect your 'role' in society? i.e. would you have to hide who you truly are to land a dream job, or can you allowed to be yourself without any consequences? What about if you lived in another country? Compare and contrast homosexuality within two distinct culture." Especially now, in an age where people are allowed to be themselves, but still have to watch who they around certain people. It's a minority group, and one I feel should receive more attention to break down the stereotypes and tensions with the rest of the world.

What I have learned

I've taken a couple of classes similar to this one, but the one thing that I learned, like, really, learned that I've never even heard of before was the models: social constructionist, pragmatic and a little bit more of the psychologist model. I knew that the concepts within them, and communications modes had to be apart of a bigger group, and I was right. It further opened my eyes to the ways we communicate and how communication shapes or is either shaped by our words.

My favorite thing about the class was learning, and the blogging. I know I missed quite a few comments, and a blog or two, but blogging was easy for me to do (pending work). The least favorite thing... was the blogging and quizzes. I'm so used to logging on to D2L and going to the discussion in order to post my questions. My other online class does it, so I kept forgetting to do it on here (hence the missed blogs). The quizzes also made me a little angry. I didn't like how I couldn't review which answers I got wrong. As I was taking the quizzes, I would have the book with me since the questions were so specific. And I would get a couple wrong every now and again. It wasn't that I got it wrong, but I would have liked to have seen why I messed up (either reading comprehension or accidentally marking something wrong) that way I could learn from my mistakes and fix it in the future.

That is the only think I would improve about the class: being able to see which question I got wrong so I can learn from my mistakes or question the coding of the answer and possible have it fixed if it wasn't wrong and I could back it up with what the book said. Maybe the option is there and I'm just stupid, but with all the other classes, it would automatically pop up and show me which ones I got wrong and show me the score at the bottom.

Most Interesting Concept: Dress

The concept that I found the most interesting in class has been those on nonverbal communication, specifically dress and clothing. I know I ranted about it in the first posting, but it boggles my mind how people do not think that what you wear conveys a message about who you are. There are even shows about it (TLC's What Not to Wear happens to be my personal favorite). The second part to this concept, which people either forget or do not realize, is the location in which the outfit it being worn. Most (hopefully none) people would not attend a black-tie event in yoga pants and a tank top. Or, a wedding in jeans (unless it is super casual and you confirm it is okay ahead of time). What people wear is only half of the issue - where they wear it is more important.
I don't know. I find it easy and logical (though I am often told by my boyfriend to either dress down or up, pending the company we are in), but some have serious issues. And I'm not talking about whether the shoes you wear look good. I'm talking about clothes that do not fit right (too tight or too baggy can tell others you are not confident in your body, there for lack confidence in other aspects of life), or provocative clothing at work/church/kids events (low-cut shirt, hot-pants, etc., can tell other you have another agenda for other than the duties you are there to perform; seducing the boss, not being religious enough, or inappropriate for kids). Either way, people should watch What Not to Wear... or read a chapter on nonverbal communication about dress.

Mental Sets

Within chapter 2, I found the term of mental sets to be interesting. Mental sets, as Trenholm (2011) states, "consists of a person's beliefs, values, attitudes, feelings, and so on" (p. 25).  The person's mind sets determine how they interpret the messages they are receiving. Mind sets can either make communication with another person more or less effective, pending on how similar their mind sets are.

I found this concept to be interesting because I have actually come across both sides of the spectrum. When the person I am talking with has a similar mind set to me, it's like I do not have to try so hard to persuade them because we think the same way. On the other hand, I've gotten really frustrated when talking with a friend who has completely different mind sets than me because we see nothing the same way. The best examples, for both the positive and negative, is religion. If you agree with religion, then the conversation is easy and no questions are asked. But when the minds are different, conversations about religion can, literally, start wars.

Pragmatic Perspective

It does make sense to think of communication as a patterned interaction. All communication is based on the other person's first communication. When people ask "how are you?" most people don't say "purple, size 2 please." They respond with "I'm .... how you are?" There are rules to communication of how to respond to another, rules that are learned through cultural interactions.

I like the analogy of communication being a game - especially as chess. There is no way that communication isn't like a game. One person says something, and the other reacts depending on what was initially said. I also liked how the book said you cannot not play, because even if you choose to not play, you are making a conscience decision of making the move of "passing" or "forfeiting" your turn. On the other hand, it is different from a game in the sense of there is no official start and end, and there is no winner or loser. Most communication is like the middle of the game, where the interesting move happens.

Building Worlds

We "build worlds" through communication by speaking about the world. Once we start speaking about the world and pass that information on, then we soon begin to believe that is how the world works without thinking twice or questioning the information given to us. Some ideas that we talk about in our culture that may not exist in other cultures is the idea of the "American Dream." Our culture teaches us that through hard work and dedication, everyone will be able to get an education, get married, find "the" job, have a nice house with a white picket fence, and live happily ever after.

I think these concepts contribute to our success by creating an idea to strive for. Since we speak about the world in a certain way, we see it in the same way without thinking twice, and in doing so, strive to make it the way we talk about so much. Like the American Dream. We talk about it, we don't question it, and we work our lives away trying to obtain it.