One thing I found to be interesting in chapter two was the concept of failed communication. Once I started to think about it, I realized there really are many factors that can get in the way of communication. The book specifically mentions codes, shared experiences and channels as things that can be disrupted and result in miscommunication. Then I started to think about how technology has increased miscommunication. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, technology has increased and opened several new channels for communication but then there also is a greater margin for error especially in emails and text messages. It is so easy to misinterpret someone’s message because we cannot see the senders facial expression or hear the tone of their voice. For example, we might mistake the tone of a short, to-the-point email to be rude but really, the sender had only limited time to send the email or maybe was distracted by something else.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Interesting Concept
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Wow, Crushedvelvet I think that you described technological miscommunication very accurately. I cannot tell you how many times I have encountered miscommunication because people read into my words a different way then what I intended. Although we have all these new ways to communicate, I think that people are losing touch with simple ways such as having a conversation face to face, or talking on the telephone. More and more people are less confident with those means of communication, so we rely on these new ones that haven’t been practiced or perfected for thousands of years. I think there are a lot of ways to fail at communication, but I feel that with time hopefully we will get better!
ReplyDeleteCrushedVelvet23,
ReplyDeleteFailed communication is an interesting concept. As I was reading your post, I was hoping I would find somewhere the effect of communicative technology on failed messages. I think email, text messaging, instant messaging, and facebooking have a huge effect on the way messages get misinterpreted these days. As communication studies majors we are taught that noise, sidetracking, and the environment affect the way messages get interpreted. Now we have to try to decipher messages over text, which eliminates nonverbal communication while conversing with others. This could be an adjustment we all have to be aware of, or a problem in regards to face to face communication. Nonetheless, it’s important to recognize.