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Relationships And Communities Session Three

Conversation is a simultaneous act of remembering the past, interpreting the present, and imagining the future.
- the past provides context that may radically change our interpretation of things
- the present is what we are saying or hearing
- the future is what we plan to say next and when we expect to be able to say it.
- Note that choice is inherent to all three. We decide what meanings need to be communicated, how we can communicate them, what things mean, how important it is to listen, and how important it is to talk. "What can I help to happen next?"

Three levels of interpersonal communication:

I-It (social): Role-driven communication in which we treat other people as their role (as an object) rather than a person. We often talk "at" people in these situations.
I-You (cultural): Situationally-driven communication in which we treat people as individuals, but within the context of well defined scripts. We often talk "with" people in these situations.
I-Thou (personal): Other-driven communication in which we talk to other people because we want to talk to them. We often talk "for" people in these situations.

Five characteristics of "personal" communication

Uniqueness: treating people as if they are not interchangable
Unmeasurable: much of what we experience is in the realm of the inexpressible
Responsive: when we are there "for" someone we are free to respond rather than react.
Reflective: we are free to change the way we think and even who we are
Addressable: we have an identity that others respect

Interpersonal communication "happens when the people involved talk and listen in ways that maximize the presence of the personal."

Everyday Emotion Planalp, 9-38

http://www.mngt.waikato.ac.nz/mcom/staff/sally/sally.htm

Some views of emotion

As disruption
- Something that interrupts normal interaction
- ... that gets in the way of rational thought
- a "commotion"
- "we are unlikely to take emotion into account and continue to talk"
As that which gives conversation "life"
- without emotion we might not even bother
- emotions enliven and give meaning to conversation
- emotions help us to make decisions

Some key Planalp metaphors

social life as fabric
communication as weaving
emotion as color

-- Last edited August 27, 2008

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Unless otherwise noted, the contents of this page were written by participants on the Media Space Wiki, operated by Davis Foulger, and should be cited accordingly. For example (APA):
Foulger, D. and other participants. (August 27, 2008). Relationships And Communities Session Three. MediaSpaceWiki. Retrieved on from http://evolutionarymedia.com/wiki.htm?RelationshipsAndCommunitiesSessionThree.