Group passion

Ahh, this video brings back many good memories! (:
As I was thinking about the topic for this week's blog entry, I once again came across this favourite video of mine that triggered me to think about my good ol' band days in school. Incidentally, I think it can be rather associated with what we have learnt about Group Communications in class.

I have been in a concert band ever since my secondary school days till junior college. Not only has band incited in me a greater passion for music, it has also taught me the synergy and effectiveness of a group.

I remember joining the band at Secondary One (age of 13), not really knowing what was in store for me. Other than picking up a new skill of playing the saxophone, I would say that I have learnt much about working in a group and the roles we play in a group.

If you were from a concert band, I am sure you would have heard of this phrase "The band is as good as its weakest player." Being in the band, one of the most important qualities constantly emphasised (implicitly or explicitly) was always "teamwork". If each individual chose to be selfish and play the music with their own interpretation, or chose not to even practice their parts..the band will not be able to achieve the music the conductor has intended for the band. Ultimately, everyone in the band will suffer from the effects of this selfish individual. What I'm trying to say here is that in a group like a band, the group's needs become first priority compared to each member's individual needs. I remember there were several incidents when I did not agree with the interpretations by the conductor, or agreed with how the teachers/band leaders handled certain situations, but I still chose to follow along with them believing that it was for the good of the band. (Or maybe I was afraid to be rejected by them due to my opposing views?)

Although initially joining the band was just another CCA to us, over time we build great rapport and dependance on each other. Through the ups and downs of preparations for competitions and performances, we learnt more about the how the band functioned and how to work with each members weaknesses and strengths to perform optimally. You probably never realised, but the more you work within the group, we begin to subconciously recognise written and unwritten norms to be followed and we will gradually follow a certain pattern of communication. Along the time that we spend with one another, the band (esp among batchmates) tend to form a collective identity and will share common views and behavioural standards.

All in all, I think i enjoyed my time in the band not only because of being able to enjoy and play music with like-minded musicians, I also had fun times with my fellow band members that I have grown to love and depend on through our the many obstacles we overcame together. (:

Valentine's day special~

First of all, Happy Valentine's Day to everyone out there!! (whether or not you have a valentine or not haha) :D

Well, what an apt way to start the week of valentine's with a lesson on interpersonal communication! To start the ball rolling, just a little info about what is interpersonal communication: Interpersonal communication occurs when there is an established relationship with the other party (usually two parties). This kind of two-person, face-to-face communication can also be termed as "dyadic communication".

In our daily interpersonal/dyadic communication with others, you must have noticed that we react to and behave differently when interacting with different individuals. This does not mean we're schizophrenic or have split personalities; rather, we have different degrees (or stages) of relational development with each individual.
For example, you would talk about the weather with a schoolmate you bumped into on the bus, but you wouldn't be caught talking about how you had serious diarrhea over the weekend, or that your family is running into some bad financial situation (unless you're really open about such things!) to them.

The Mark Knapp's Relational Development Model draws out the various stages relationships go through. It may probably be very technical to break relationships down into such dry and predictable stages, yet often than not this model has been proven true over time.

(Just picture yourself going the steps on the left and coming down on the right.)
And yes, since Valentine's day is around the corner it would only be suitable to use a romantic relationship to exemplify the stages, right? :p
Jack and Rose from the movie Titanic..This movie has always remained one of my favorite movies of all times probably because of the love story behind it! I'm sure many of you are also familiar with the story of the Titanic lovers (:

The initiating stage came when they had the opportunity to meet on the Titanic of course, when Rose had wanted to jump off the ship and Jack managed to stop her in time.
Experimenting came next when they began spending time with each other and learning about each other through those times when Rose would steal over to the lower class deck to find Jack.
Intensifying came when Jack and Rose were seen together more often and Jack was introduced to Rose's family and friends. This is also where one of the famous Titanic scene happened

Integrating was probably one of the most memorable scenes of the movie, which is Jack drawing a nude picture of Rose and thereafter both of them running away from Rose's fiance. Of course, one could never forget the car scene which made that "hand sliding down the misted windows" scene such a hit
Bonding sadly never came for them both as they were separated before they could tie the knot.
And then their relationship was tragically (Dissolution) terminated when Jack died in the frigid waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
As you can see, relationships do not necessarily follow the Knapp's model strictly. Some may be stuck at one stage, while other flunctuate between stages. There are of course the coming apart stages that also progressively show how couples eventually become separate individuals.
Each stage signifies a different communication pattern and behaviour towards one another. Hopefully after reading this post, you may be more successful in sussing out if your valentine's day date is worth future dates. haha

Language.

First things first, please pardon the vulgar language being used in the commercial above! =x (Disclaimer: If you know me, I am not a vulgar person at all! All for the purposes of illustrating my point only!)
Thanks to my internet-savvy brother, I first viewed this commercial a few years back and was initially rather irked by the concept being used in the advertisement. While surfing the net recently, I was surprised to see it still around on YouTube (even ganering one of the highest viewer hits today!). This time around however, the commercial somehow prompted me to recognise how vital language is in our human communication today.

No one can deny that everyday we need to use language to converse our thoughts and feelings to the people around us. The spoken language is used as a medium for verbal communication with others. Even in our subconcious minds, we use language to verbalise our thoughts and aid us in storing our memories.
The spoken language or "speech" has been the dividing line between humans and animals and has given us a leg-up in communicating to one another.

And just as the commercial above has shown, although language has been useful in making communication effective, it has also created barriers among people - more commonly between groups of people (rather than individuals). How so?

There are millions of languages present in our world today - some recognised and some not so commonly used among people. In this context, language not only serves the purpose of conveying our thoughts and ideas to others, but also has created a exclusionary group of people with its unique culture and traditions. This has created a limit to human to human communication with what we call "language barriers".

Going beyond the boundaries of different languages, limits in comunication arise even within the same language, people tend to create their own set of "lingo" to set themselves apart from the crowd. Sort of like a defining trait. Just like how the younger generation today have a set of language like "LOL", "emo" and "imba" to say just a few. These expressions or words do not actually exist in the English language, but most youngsters in Singapore would be able to understand the meaning of the words if they were used along with our English language. Such "lingo" or better known as "slang", help people within the same group relate easily to one another, as well as segregate people that do not belong to the group (in this case, it may be adults/parents).

Such variations to language in addition to the vast number of languages applied by humans today have added on to additional barriers and possible miscommunications among people, as much as it has helped us communication today. What kind of roles do you think language plays in our communication and has it aided in making our human communication more effecient?

half-glass full, half-glass empty?

Half glass empty, half glass full? Such is the basic idea of perception that is commonly brought across to us.

What is perception really?

Perception is a process by which we make sense of the world around us. Most importantly, be it half-glass empty or full, perception is definitely a determining factor in how we communicate to others. Seiler and Beall defines perception as "The process of selecting, organising, and interpreting information in order to give personal meaning to the meaning to the communication we recieve."

I feel that one of the major influences to our perception is our cognitive schemata. This is part of the organising process of perception and is our default mental framework that each individual has developed over time.
WhenI describe to you a guy wearing glasses with black plastic frames, and a faded shirt from another era tucked into a pair of worn-out cargos you may instantly think: nerd, un-cool, geek (or at least something pops up in your mind la, haha) This would be an example of a cognitive schemata, or more specifically, personal protyping. We usually form these personal prototypes over time through our culture, environment and past experiences, and would most likely apply these assumptions if we come across simliar people/situations in future. In addition, media also reinforces these common personal prototypes through television shows and advertisements.

A personal construct also works like a personal prototype. If we knew we were talking to a lawyer, we would be more concious of how and what we speak, because one would naturally expect a lawyer to be knowledgable and eloquent. What does it mean to be a hardworking student can very from person to person, and is considered a personal construct.

Another interesting aspect of cognitive schemata is how we have certain "scripts" in our mind. For example, how a break-up should occur and the series of events it should follow. We most probably form such templates from our television dramas and even experiences from our friends and ourselves.

Such cognitive schematas enable us to predict how certain situations may be and how certain people may behave. This prediction in turn affects how we behave these situations and helps us be more confident at the same time. However, such "default settings" may limit our perception as it may cause us to see/hear things that may not have actually happened. It may also affect our communication adversely if we tend to assign personal contructs and prototypes to people we meet.
There are of course many other factors that result in us having such differentiated perceptions among individuals. This perception changes how we view things/situations/environment: thus the derivation of the half full/empty glass analogy.
So whether you view a glass as being empty, full, or wondering where your cheeseburger went...how do you think perception is important to your communication?

We need communication now more than ever

Hey people!! This is my very first entry on this blog!! (: What better why to start than to talk about how communication has evolved from history till today!

Do you think that everyday, from the moment we open our eyes to the last person we wish "Goodnight", we are constantly in need for interpersonal communication?

As the comic strip above suggests (not limiting to long-distance communication only), even from the early times of cavemen and what-have-you, humans have been utilising whatever tools available to them to communicate ideas, theories or emotions to one another.

From the amount of tools available to us today for effective communication, i'm rather convinced humans cannot do without interpersonal communication. Simply because: No man is an island. We communicate because we need to survive on this place called earth.

People communicate for various reasons, of course. In earlier ages, tribal tongues, stone inscriptions and even tribal dance were all probably part of communicating a certain code of conduct being expected, ancient worship, and a way of living within the tribe/community. This of course developed further to the spoken and written languages that we use today, which has helped bridge the divide among groups and led the world to interact more closely and effectively with one another. The advent of techonology in communication tools only served to fuel the rapid fire in bringing people in closer contact with one another. Now we are no longer limited to our physical boundaries, but are able to interact and communicate (only with a split-second time lag) with people across the globe with the touch of a button.

Now, we would all think that since communication technology has advanced so successfully (and still is advancing at a rapid pace), people would spend less time and effort trying to communicate. But just look at the people of today! - Television, Internet Chatrooms and Forums, Blogs, MSN, YouTube, Facebook, Smartphones, SMS, Video Conferencing and the list is never-ending! It seems that people are trying all ways and means to be seen, to be heard, to constantly communicate at the first second thier ideas, opinions, or simply what they had for breakfast today.

How many of us feel comfortable in abandoning our handphones for just a day? Or how many are able to stay off the computer for a day or two? The most probable answer to either of the questions above is you can't! It seems that the need for communication in humans have spurred men to develop more effective means of communication, which again in turn has fuelled in us a more desperate want and need to interact with the world out there. Communication today has exceeded the basic needs of communicating for mere survival as compared to thousand of years ago; it has become a lifestyle to live up to, a way of life that has us constantly plugged in to the latest world news, our friend's birthday party, etc.

Our way of communication may have become less physical, but be it SMS-ing, video-conferencing, blogging or even a tribal dance, but it seems that humans now more than ever are hooked onto communicating with one another.