Communication Skills

Gabriella Gizzo                                                                                               9/26/12

Understanding Literature                                                                               iExamen 1

Communication Skills

            In today’s society, we are constantly doing something and always working.  We are trying to multi task by combining different tasks to get many things done faster.  Our communication depends on how we interact with others in our community.  Our communication skills are performed in a varied of ways: talking on the phone, texting, email, twitter, facebook, and writing something down.  Technology has allowed us to communicate better because we have an infinite amount of ways of getting connected with people very quickly.  The idea of communicating instantly is what shapes our generation.  However, there are also some negative effects to constantly relaying on technology for communication.  I believe that there must be a balance between technologies based form of communication and human interaction.

            The first part of this reflection allowed me to evaluate the formats and methods of communication.  I noticed how people walked, talked and their self expression (through their clothes).  It was really interesting because every person does have their own ways of communicating and expressing themselves.  I observed that most people, including myself, communicated through speech, by saying hi, or through cell phones.  Everywhere you go on campus, someone is on their phone.  The positive aspect of these forms of communication is that people are representing themselves as friendly; but busy students who are constantly working throughout the day.  However, the negative aspects of these forms of communication are that they portrayed an image of being too busy for any social interaction with an actual person.  When we are constantly on our phones, it sends a message that you are ignoring the other people around you.  We try to multi task, but this really doesn’t work because you aren’t devoting yourself to that one person.

            After further reflection, I realized that texting is not the best form of communication for all situations because you can easily misinterpret what a person has said.  This form of communication can actually cause more problems because your original point wasn’t understood.  In informal situations, texting is good for short term speech, but not for long deep conversations.  However, I decided that the best forms of communication are the ones that involve speaking openly and honest.  It occurs when two people are open to both of their ideas share those ideas and then decide the outcome.  The outcome will be beneficial to both people because they have focused on each other and communicated effectively.  This can be done face-to-face or talking on the phone.  The most important aspect is that they are connecting with the person and not relying on technology to connect them or their message.

            The second part of this reflection was to observe your communication skills without using any technology for an hour.  I noticed that the communication skills of me and others greatly improved because people are directly connecting to each other.  This allowed better conversation flow and better body language between people.  I personally believe that it was nice and refreshing to take a break from the technology and the rest of the world.  I think it is important to turn off technology throughout the day, in order to gain some level of peace and better connect with those around us.

            In the end, I learned a lot about the process of communication.  In the beginning, I thought communication was just about speech.  In the end, I learned that our communication skills vary from speech to body language.  Our communication skills may be constantly changing, but depend our ability to connect with others.