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Essay on Communication in 100, 200 and 300 Words: The Essence of Survival

• Updated on  
• Oct 20, 2023

Do you know how important it is to communicate with others? Communication is the primary means through which individuals share information, ideas and thoughts. Communication fosters strong relationships. In this essence, writing an essay on communication becomes important where you highlight the importance of communication, how it affects our everyday lives and what skills are required to become a communication professional . Let’s explore all these questions with some essays on communication.

Table of Contents

• 1 Essay on Communication in 100 Words
• 2 Essay on Communication in 200 Words
• 3 Essay on Communication in 300 Words

Also Read: Essay on Freedom Fighters

Essay on Communication in 100 Words

Communication is the cornerstone of human interaction and is crucial to sharing ideas, thoughts and information. By communicating, people foster relationships, which is vital for personal and professional growth. Effective communication facilitates understanding, resolves conflicts, and promotes collaboration. Whether verbal or nonverbal, it forms the basis of successful teamwork, decision-making, and social integration.

Clear communication is key to a harmonious society, nurturing empathy, and building trust. It encourages brainstorming, creative thinking, and the development of new solutions to complex problems. Its impact is profound, shaping the way we interact, learn, and evolve, making it an indispensable tool for human connection and progress. 

Essay on Communication in 200 Words

What makes communication important is that it serves as the bedrock for exchanging ideas, information, and emotions. It is the essence of human interaction, enabling us to convey our thoughts, beliefs, and intentions to others. Effective communication is essential in every aspect of life, whether in personal relationships, professional environments, or social interactions.

Effective communication can form the basis of trust and mutual understanding and understanding. In personal relationships, communication fosters understanding and empathy, allowing individuals to express their feelings and needs, while also listening to and acknowledging others. 

In the professional realm. Communication allows the smooth functioning of organizations. With communication, individuals can disseminate information, set clear expectations and encourage collaboration among team members. Moreover, effective communication in the workplace enhances productivity and promotes a positive work culture.

The uses and benefits of communication are not limited to just personal and professional realms. In social environments also, communication allows diverse groups to understand each other’s cultures, beliefs, and values, promoting inclusivity and harmony in society.

You can call communication a fundamental pillar of human existence, as it helps in shaping our relationships, work environments, and societal interactions. Its effective practice is essential for nurturing empathy, building trust, and fostering a more connected and understanding world.

Also Read: Essay on the Importance of English Language

Essay on Communication in 300 Words

How crucial communication is can be explained by the fact that it allows the smooth transfer of ideas, thoughts, feelings and information. Communication is the lifeblood of human interaction, playing a crucial role in the exchange of ideas, information, and emotions. It serves as the cornerstone of relationships, both personal and professional, and is integral to the functioning of society as a whole. 

In personal relationships, it is essential to have effective communication for clear understanding and empathy. It allows individuals to express their thoughts, feelings, and needs, while also providing a platform for active listening and mutual support. Strong communication fosters trust and intimacy, enabling individuals to build meaningful and lasting connections with others.

Without communication, you might struggle for organizational success in the professional world. Clear and effective communication within a team or workplace ensures that tasks are understood, roles are defined, and goals are aligned. It enables efficient collaboration, problem-solving, and decision-making, contributing to a positive and productive work environment. Moreover, effective communication between employers and employees promotes a sense of transparency and fosters a healthy work culture.

In a broader sense, communication is vital for social integration and cultural understanding. It bridges the gaps between diverse groups, facilitating the exchange of values, beliefs, and perspectives. Effective communication fosters inclusivity and respect for cultural differences, contributing to a more harmonious and cohesive community.

However, communication is not just about sharing information and ideas. It also encompasses nonverbal cues such as body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice, all of which play a significant role in conveying meaning and emotions. It is the glue that binds individuals and communities together, fostering understanding, empathy, and collaboration. Practicing clear and empathetic communication is vital for creating a more connected, inclusive, and harmonious world.

Related Articles:

Communication is the process of exchanging ideas, information, thoughts and feelings between individuals or groups through the use of verbal and nonverbal methods.

To write an essay on communication, you need to describe what communication is, what the importance of communication in our lives and how it can help us know different aspects of life.

To become an effective communicator, you must become an active listener and understand what others have to say. You must learn to express your thoughts clearly and concisely. You also need to ensure your body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice perfectly align with your ideas.

For more information on such interesting topics, visit our essay writing page and follow Leverage Edu .

Shiva Tyagi

With an experience of over a year, I've developed a passion for writing blogs on wide range of topics. I am mostly inspired from topics related to social and environmental fields, where you come up with a positive outcome.

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• Duck, S., & McMahan, D. T. (2018). Communication in everyday life: a survey of communication (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks,, California: SAGE Publications, Inc.
• Oetzel, J., Pant, S., & Rao, N. (2016). Methods for Intercultural Communication Research. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication. DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.202
• What is Communication? (2019, March 21). Retrieved from https://www.natcom.org/about-nca/what-communication.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why Are Good Communication Skills Important?

Effective communication fosters understanding, collaboration, and productivity. It strengthens relationships, resolves conflicts, and builds trust. In both personal and professional spheres, good communication is vital for conveying ideas, emotions, and information clearly, leading to successful interactions and achieving goals.

How to Improve Communication Skills?

To enhance communication skills, practice active listening, maintain eye contact, and use clear and concise language. Develop empathy, be open to feedback, and adapt your communication style to the audience. Engage in conversations, public speaking, and seek opportunities to refine your skills through workshops or courses.

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Home — Essay Samples — Sociology — Effective Communication — Effective Communication: The Key to Building Strong Connections

Effective Communication: The Key to Building Strong Connections

• Categories: Connection Effective Communication

About this sample

Words: 791 |

Published: Sep 12, 2023

Words: 791 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Table of contents

The importance of effective communication, key elements of effective communication, barriers to effective communication, strategies for improving communication, 1. building relationships:, 2. resolving conflicts:, 3. achieving goals:, 4. personal development:, 5. success in the workplace:, 1. clarity:, 2. active listening:, 3. empathy:, 4. nonverbal communication:, 5. respect:, 1. misunderstandings:, 2. lack of active listening:, 3. emotional barriers:, 4. assumptions and stereotypes:, 5. lack of feedback:, 1. practice active listening:, 2. foster empathy:, 3. be mindful of nonverbal cues:, 4. seek feedback:, 5. adapt to your audience: h3>, 6. practice constructive communication:, 7. educate yourself:.

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Essay on Importance of Communication for Students and Children

500+ words essay on importance of communication:.

Communication is one of the important tools that aid us to connect with people. Either you are a student or a working professional, good communication is something that will connect you far ahead. Proper communication can help you to solve a number of issues and resolve problems. This is the reason that one must know how to communicate well. The skills of communication essential to be developed so that you are able to interact with people. And able to share your thoughts and reach out to them. All this needs the correct guidance and self-analysis as well.

Meaning of Communication

The word communication is basically a process of interaction with the people and their environment . Through such type of interactions, two or more individuals influence the ideas, beliefs, and attitudes of each other.

Such interactions happen through the exchange of information through words, gestures, signs, symbols, and expressions. In organizations, communication is an endless process of giving and receiving information and to build social relationships.

Importance of Communication

Communication is not merely essential but the need of the hour. It allows you to get the trust of the people and at the same time carry better opportunities before you. Some important points are as follows –

Help to Build Relationships 

No matter either you are studying or working, communication can aid you to build a relationship with the people. If you are studying you communicate with classmates and teachers to build a relationship with them. Likewise in offices and organizations too, you make relationships with the staff, your boss and other people around.

Improve the Working Environment 

There are a number of issues which can be handled through the right and effective communication. Even planning needs communication both written as well as verbal. Hence it is essential to be good in them so as to fill in the communication gap.

Foster strong team

Communication helps to build a strong team environment in the office and other places. Any work which requires to be done in a team. It is only possible if the head communicates everything well and in the right direction.

Find the right solutions

Through communication, anyone can find solutions to even serious problems. When we talk, we get ideas from people that aid us to solve the issues. This is where communication comes into play. Powerful communication is the strength of any organization and can help it in many ways.

Earns more respect

If your communication skills are admirable, people will love and give you respect. If there is any problem, you will be the first person to be contacted. Thus it will increase your importance. Hence you can say that communications skills can make a big change to your reputation in society.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Don’t Go Overboard With Your Point

The conversation is about to express your thoughts. And to let the other person know what you feel. It is not mean to prove that your point is correct and the other person is wrong. Don’t Overboard other With Your Point.

Watch Your Words

Before you say something to Watch Your Words. At times, out of anger or anxiousness, we say somethings that we must not say. Whenever you are in a professional meeting or in some formal place, where there is a necessity of communicating about your product or work then it is advised to practice the same beforehand

Communication is the greatest importance. It is important to sharing out one’s thoughts and feelings to live a fuller and happier life. The more we communicate the less we suffer and the better we feel about everything around. However, it is all the more necessary to learn the art of effective communication to put across ones point well.

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Human Communication, Essay Example

Pages: 2

Words: 504

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There is a difference between doing something and doing something right. We may have been engaging in communication our whole lives but that doesn’t necessarily make us effective communicators which explains why good communication skills are so rare. Effective communication doesn’t only involve speaking and listening but also paying attention to non-verbal cues that sometimes convey more information than the actual words spoken.

Similarly, communication is influenced by several factors including communication context, background of the sender of the message as well as the receiver whether professional, ethnic, social economic, or cultural, communication channel, communication style of the parties, and the content of the message. It is important to understand the communication needs of your audience as well as their background otherwise unintentional communication misunderstandings may occur. For example, ‘thumbs-up’ is a vulgar insult in Russia (Zeveloff) while it has a positive meaning in America. Similarly, the use of professional jargons may be appropriate in work environments but should be avoided when communicating with the general public or someone from a different professional background.

Listening may be a passive activity but communication is an active process in which both the sender and the receiver engage in numerous processes to ensure that the message was sent, received, and understood just as the speaker intended. This is why communication process often involves the receiver seeking confirmation to ensure he/she has understood the message correctly.

An article on WorldBusinessCulture.com talks about the challenges of communication in cross-cultural environment. Even though language differentials do pose communication challenges, the communication issues occur even when both parties speak the same language. This is because the same language may have different versions in different countries. Another factor that poses communication challenges is cultural attitudes towards openness. Some cultures prefer direct communication styles while other cultures prefer harmony over conflicts and, thus, display ambiguous communication patterns. Similarly, second-language speakers, no matter how proficient they may be in the language, would still not match the language skills of the native speakers. Thus, a useful strategy is for native speakers to accommodate the communication style of the second-language speakers (World Business Culture).

Communication channels also differ across cultures. Some cultures are more frequent user of face-to-face communication while other cultures make extensive use of technological channels such as email and video conferencing. Thus, one benefits by doing research on the communication channels most commonly used in other cultures and adopting them. Moreover, situations may also determine the most appropriate communication channel to use, thus, one should go for situation-appropriate communication channel rather than the inconvenient one.

The importance of learning about the audience background is clear in the article because communication styles are influenced by factors such as culture, language proficiency, and preferred communication channels. In addition, the same language may have several versions so the speakers should be willing to adapt to the local version even if they are native speakers of the language.

World Business Culture. Business Communication. 17 September 2012 <http://www.worldbusinessculture.com/business-communication.html>.

Zeveloff, Julie. Rude Hand Gestures Around The World In Pictures. 27 September 2011. 17 September 2012 <http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-09-27/lifestyle/30207335_1_culture-vulgar-insult-words>.

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Essays About Communication: Top 5 Examples and Prompts

Are you writing essays about communication? Check out our top essay examples and writing prompts to help you get started.

Communication is power and is critical to building a well-connected society. Communicating well is vital in working with people and shedding light on problems and solutions. Practical communication skills can help build relationships. 

If you’re writing an essay on communication and are having a hard time choosing a topic to focus on, here is our round-up of the best essay examples to get you started:  

1. The Benefits of Communication and Teamwork by Karenina Loayza

2. it’s time to tune in: why listening is the real key to communication by kate murphy, 3. a love language spoken with hands by ross showalter, 4. the role of body language in communication by ashley tulio, 5. the power of storytelling in marketing by dylan jacob, 1. how-to develop communication skills, 2. how-to write an inspiring speech, 3. should all leaders be good communicators, 4. theories of mass communication, 5. how are schools developing children’s communication skills, 6. communicating face-to-face vs. online , 7. marketing communications: what are they, 8. is communicating on social media effective, 9. is it possible to communicate effectively on virtual workplace platforms, 10. how-to communicate in the workplace.

“In one task, we were blindfolded and had to describe a set of irregular pieces. With varying degrees of English and different experiences of the world, it was like explaining an elephant to an alien.” 

Loayza narrates an exercise in class where they have to describe surrounding objects as accurately as possible to keep others from stumbling on them. The writer said the exercise demonstrated effectively the need for good communication skills for teams to succeed.

“Schools and universities have courses in debate, rhetoric and elocution, but rarely classes that teach listening. You can get a doctorate in speech communication and join Toastmasters International to perfect your speaking skills, but who strives for excellence in listening?”

Murphy muses on a world that glorifies the speakers but leaves no room for the listeners like her. She points out how social media has created a generation that prefers interacting behind the screen and filtering out opinions that do not resonate with theirs. Instead, Murphy emphasizes listening as a foundation for better human relations and offers solutions for how others can develop their listening for successful communication. 

“Will showed me that not everyone makes promises they don’t intend to fulfil. I don’t have to invest in someone who promises an action they’ll never do. Relationships only move forward once the work of communication begins.”

Showalter, a deaf man, laments how non-deaf ex-lovers have promised to learn sign language to better communicate with him – only to see these promises broken. Then, one morning, a remarkable man in his life sends a video message reviving hopes for Showalter and redefines his standard in relationships for the better. 

“Non-verbal communication can affect our words as it can reiterate our message, contradict our words, reinforce our statement, substitute the meaning of what we are trying to say, and complement what we are trying to say. Body language is something that is usually natural and is often done instinctively rather than consciously.”

Tulio, a communications specialist, stresses the importance of using body language for expression. She provides tips on maximizing gestures and body movement to convey emotions in person and through videoconferencing. 

“In marketing, storytelling provides an avenue to connect to consumers unlike any other. Brands are empowered to share and sell their values and personality in a form that feels less like advertising and more like a concerted effort to strengthen relationships with customers.

The author cites the viewpoints of a business school professor who explains how storytelling can shape the world’s perception of a brand. Finally, the author outlines the vital elements that make an exciting story capable of connecting with an audience and effecting action among consumers.

10 Writing Prompts On essays about communication

To further expand your horizon on the subject, you can work around our list of prompts that are interesting and relevant to date:

You can narrow down this essay to target employees, students, aspiring leaders, or those who want to improve their conversation skills. First, list down recommendations such as expanding their vocabulary and listening. Then, explain how they can incorporate this into their daily routine. 

Writing a speech that strikes a chord requires extra work in developing empathy and understanding the audience. Next, you can focus on providing recommendations for your essay, such as putting in a personal touch and linking this story to the broader subject. Make sure you also offer simple writing tips such as using the active voice as much as possible, keeping sentences short, and keeping the tone conversational. 

Cite research studies that detail why effective communication is a critical skill that makes a leader. Then, write about the organizational pitfalls of poor communication. Later, leaders who can speak engagingly and listen attentively to their team members can address these pitfalls. 

Communication theory is the study of processes in sending and receiving information. Discuss the four main theories of mass communication: the Authoritarian Theory, the Libertarian Theory, the Soviet-Communist Theory, and the Social-Responsibility Theory. Explain each one. Explain how each remains relevant in understanding modern communication processes. 

Interview schools within your community and learn about their language curriculum and other efforts to empower children to communicate well. You can also interview child development experts. Find out the biggest challenges in helping children improve how they express their thoughts and ideas. Then, find out what schools and parents are doing to address them. 

While you’d hear many people expressing a preference for face-to-face meetings, there are undoubtedly benefits to online meetings, which some usually dismiss. Weigh in on the pros and cons of in-person and online meetings, especially in the current scenario of an ongoing pandemic. 

What are the new marketing channels marketers are leveraging to reach their audience? Several surveys and studies show where most marketing campaigns allocate their budgets. One example is video content. 

An interesting angle would also involve looking at epic brand fails. Cite two or more cases, find a communication mishap common between them and provide what lessons can today’s brands learn from these epic fails. 

From interacting with loved ones and finding someone to date and love, social media has dramatically changed our ways of communication. It might be great to interview the elders who have experienced communicating through snail mail. Dive into their nostalgia and discover how they compare the experience of letter writing against instant chatting through mobile apps. 

Several apps today aim to transform workplaces to be more connected for interaction and communication. First, list down the top apps most used in the corporate world and discuss why these communication forms are preferred over email. Then, delve into the drawbacks and aspects of the apps that need improvements according to what business users say. 

Recent studies show that employees quit their jobs when they feel unable to talk about their needs in the workplace. Research the communication culture in the top companies in a specific field. How are they engaging with their employees? How are they driving conversations toward critical concerns?

TIP: You don’t have to write an extended essay. Here is a guide to writing a concise and organized five-paragraph essay.

For more help with writing, check out our best essay writing tips for a stress-free writing process. 

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130 Communication Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Inside This Article

Communication is an essential aspect of human interaction, and it plays a crucial role in our personal and professional lives. Whether it is verbal, written, or non-verbal, effective communication is key to understanding and being understood. If you're tasked with writing an essay on communication, here are 130 topic ideas and examples to help you get started:

• The art of effective communication: Strategies for successful interaction.
• The impact of technology on communication: Is face-to-face interaction declining?
• The role of non-verbal communication in building relationships.
• The power of listening: How active listening enhances communication.
• The influence of cultural differences on communication in a globalized world.
• The importance of empathy in effective communication.
• The challenges of communicating in a diverse workplace.
• The role of gender in communication styles.
• The impact of social media on interpersonal communication.
• The art of public speaking: Tips for delivering impactful speeches.
• The role of body language in communication: Understanding non-verbal cues.
• The use of humor in communication: Building rapport and breaking barriers.
• The impact of language barriers on effective communication.
• The role of communication in conflict resolution.
• The psychology behind persuasive communication.
• The role of communication in building trust and credibility.
• The influence of communication on leadership effectiveness.
• The impact of media on public opinion: The role of communication in shaping perceptions.
• The art of storytelling: How narratives enhance communication.
• The role of active listening in effective customer service.
• The challenges of communicating in a virtual team.
• The impact of communication on interpersonal relationships.
• The role of communication in negotiation and persuasion.
• The impact of social media on political communication.
• The art of diplomatic communication: Navigating cultural and political differences.
• The role of communication in healthcare: Enhancing patient-provider relationships.
• The impact of communication on team dynamics and collaboration.
• The role of communication in managing organizational change.
• The influence of communication on employee engagement and motivation.
• The impact of communication on customer satisfaction.
• The role of communication in building a strong organizational culture.
• The challenges of communicating in a crisis or emergency situation.
• The impact of communication on public relations and reputation management.
• The role of communication in effective parenting.
• The influence of communication on educational outcomes.
• The impact of communication on cross-cultural relationships.
• The role of communication in successful project management.
• The challenges of communicating in a multilingual society.
• The influence of communication on consumer behavior.
• The impact of communication on mental health and well-being.
• The role of communication in promoting social justice and equality.
• The challenges of communicating with individuals with disabilities.
• The influence of communication on organizational ethics and transparency.
• The impact of communication on innovation and creativity.
• The role of communication in building sustainable communities.
• The challenges of communicating in a crisis-affected region.
• The influence of communication on social movements and activism.
• The impact of communication on conflict escalation or de-escalation.
• The role of communication in building successful interpersonal relationships.
• The challenges of communicating in a globalized world.
• The influence of communication on workplace productivity.
• The impact of communication on customer loyalty and retention.
• The role of communication in effective team decision-making.
• The challenges of communicating in a virtual learning environment.
• The influence of communication on organizational innovation.
• The impact of communication on organizational performance and productivity.
• The role of communication in effective crisis management.
• The challenges of communicating with individuals from different generations.
• The influence of communication on organizational conflict management.
• The impact of communication on sales and marketing effectiveness.
• The role of communication in promoting sustainable development.
• The challenges of communicating in a politically polarized society.
• The influence of communication on individual and organizational resilience.
• The impact of communication on organizational learning and knowledge sharing.
• The role of communication in effective change management.
• The challenges of communicating in a technologically advanced society.
• The influence of communication on personal and professional branding.
• The impact of communication on organizational trust and loyalty.
• The role of communication in effective customer relationship management.
• The challenges of communicating in a multicultural society.
• The influence of communication on organizational culture and values.
• The impact of communication on team conflict resolution.
• The role of communication in effective project team collaboration.
• The challenges of communicating in a fast-paced work environment.
• The influence of communication on employee job satisfaction.
• The impact of communication on organizational decision-making processes.
• The role of communication in effective knowledge transfer and knowledge management.
• The challenges of communicating with individuals from different socioeconomic backgrounds.
• The influence of communication on organizational resilience and adaptability.
• The impact of communication on organizational creativity and innovation.
• The role of communication in effective organizational networking.
• The challenges of communicating with individuals from different educational backgrounds.
• The influence of communication on organizational performance measurement.
• The impact of communication on organizational conflict prevention.
• The role of communication in effective team-building efforts.
• The challenges of communicating in a remote work environment.
• The influence of communication on organizational decision-making speed.
• The impact of communication on employee job performance.
• The role of communication in effective organizational learning.
• The challenges of communicating with individuals from different religious backgrounds.
• The influence of communication on organizational change readiness.
• The impact of communication on employee motivation and engagement.
• The role of communication in effective organizational problem-solving.
• The challenges of communicating in a multicultural classroom.
• The influence of communication on organizational knowledge creation.
• The impact of communication on organizational conflict transformation.
• The role of communication in effective leadership development.
• The challenges of communicating with individuals from different political ideologies.
• The influence of communication on organizational change acceptance.
• The impact of communication on employee creativity and innovation.
• The role of communication in effective organizational decision implementation.
• The challenges of communicating in a customer-centric business environment.
• The influence of communication on organizational change sustainability.
• The impact of communication on employee job satisfaction.
• The role of communication in effective organizational performance evaluation.
• The challenges of communicating with individuals from different cultural backgrounds.
• The influence of communication on organizational change effectiveness.
• The challenges of communicating with individuals from different language backgrounds.

Remember, these topics are just a starting point. You can further refine them based on your specific research interests or the requirements of your essay prompt. Good luck with your communication essay!

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Essay on Importance Of Effective Communication

Students are often asked to write an essay on Importance Of Effective Communication in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Importance Of Effective Communication

Understanding each other.

When people talk and listen well, they understand each other better. Just like friends sharing secrets, clear talking and careful listening make sure no one gets confused or upset. It’s like playing catch – if you throw and catch well, the game goes on smoothly.

Getting Things Done

Good communication is like a key that opens doors. At school or at home, when you explain what you need clearly, it’s easier for others to help you. It’s like giving clear directions to someone so they can find the way without getting lost.

Building Relationships

Talking and listening to each other is the glue in friendships. When we share our thoughts and feelings, we grow closer. It’s like building a bridge between two islands, making it easier to meet in the middle.

Stopping Arguments

When we talk clearly and listen to what others say, many fights can be avoided. It’s like seeing a stop sign before a crash happens – it keeps everyone safe from misunderstandings and hurt feelings.

250 Words Essay on Importance Of Effective Communication

Why good communication matters, learning together.

In school, if a teacher explains lessons in a way that’s easy to get, students can understand and remember things better. If students ask questions and give answers clearly, everyone learns more. This is why being good at talking and listening can help in getting good grades and knowing more.

Work and Teamwork

At work, if a boss tells workers what to do in a simple, clear way, the job gets done right. If team members talk to each other well, they can work together without getting mixed up. This means the work is better and everyone is happier.

Making Friends

With friends, talking and listening are keys to having fun and helping each other. When we share stories and listen to what others say, friendships grow. If we can’t talk well or don’t listen, misunderstandings happen, and feelings might get hurt.

Solving Problems

When there’s a problem, talking in a calm and clear way can fix things faster. If we listen to others and explain our side without getting mad, most problems can be solved easily.

In short, good communication is a superpower for learning, working, making friends, and solving problems. It’s a skill worth getting better at every day.

500 Words Essay on Importance Of Effective Communication

What is effective communication, why is talking well important.

Imagine you have a great idea during a class project. You share it with your friends, and because you explain it well, they all get excited and want to help. This is one reason why talking well is important. It helps us share our ideas and feelings in a way that others can understand. When we talk well, we make friends, solve problems, and get things done.

Listening is Part of Talking Well

Talking isn’t just about speaking; it’s also about listening. When we listen, we learn what others think and feel. This helps us to know them better and to work together well. Good listeners show they care about what the other person is saying. This makes the other person feel important and happy to talk more.

How Does Talking Well Help at School?

Talking well helps with problems.

Sometimes we have disagreements or problems with others. Effective communication helps us solve these problems. When we talk about what’s bothering us in a calm and clear way, we can find solutions faster. It’s like untangling a knot instead of pulling it tighter.

Talking Well is Important for the Future

As you grow up, you will meet many new people and do different things. You might work on big projects, help others, or lead a group. To do these things well, you need to talk well. People who communicate effectively are often chosen for important tasks and leadership roles because others trust them to share ideas and information clearly.

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communication , the exchange of meanings between individuals through a common system of symbols.

This article treats the functions, types, and psychology of communication. For a treatment of animal communication , see animal behaviour . For further treatment of the basic components and techniques of human communication, see language ; speech ; writing . For technological aspects, including communications devices and information systems, see broadcasting ; dictionary ; encyclopaedia ; information processing ; information theory ; library ; printing ; publishing, history of ; telecommunications media ; telecommunications network ; telecommunications system .

The subject of communication has concerned scholars since the time of ancient Greece . Until modern times, however, the topic was usually subsumed under other disciplines and taken for granted as a natural process inherent to each. In 1928 the English literary critic and author I.A. Richards offered one of the first—and in some ways still the best—definitions of communication as a discrete aspect of human enterprise:

Communication takes place when one mind so acts upon its environment that another mind is influenced, and in that other mind an experience occurs which is like the experience in the first mind, and is caused in part by that experience.

Richards’s definition is both general and rough, but its application to nearly all kinds of communication—including those between humans and animals (but excluding machines)—separated the contents of messages from the processes in human affairs by which these messages are transmitted. More recently, questions have been raised concerning the adequacy of any single definition of the term communication as it is currently employed. The American psychiatrist and scholar Jurgen Ruesch identified 40 varieties of disciplinary approaches to the subject, including architectural, anthropological, psychological, political, and many other interpretations of the apparently simple interaction described by Richards. In total, if such informal communications as sexual attraction and play behaviour are included, there exist at least 50 modes of interpersonal communication that draw upon dozens of discrete intellectual disciplines and analytic approaches. Communication may therefore be analyzed in at least 50 different ways.

Interest in communication has been stimulated by advances in science and technology, which, by their nature, have called attention to humans as communicating creatures. Among the first and most dramatic examples of the inventions resulting from technological ingenuity were the telegraph and telephone, followed by others like wireless radio and telephoto devices. The development of popular newspapers and periodicals, broadcasting, motion pictures, and television led to institutional and cultural innovations that permitted efficient and rapid communication between a few individuals and large populations; these media have been responsible for the rise and social power of the new phenomenon of mass communication . ( See also information theory ; information processing ; telecommunication system .)

Since roughly 1920 the growth and apparent influence of communications technology have attracted the attention of many specialists who have attempted to isolate communication as a specific facet of their particular interest. Psychologists , in their studies of behaviour and mind, have evolved concepts of communication useful to their investigations as well as to certain forms of therapy. Social scientists have identified various forms of communication by which myths , styles of living, mores, and traditions are passed either from generation to generation or from one segment of society to another. Political scientists and economists have recognized that communication of many types lies at the heart of the regularities in the social order. Under the impetus of new technology—particularly high-speed computers—mathematicians and engineers have tried to quantify and measure components of communicated information and to develop methods for translating various types of messages into quantities or amounts amenable to both their procedures and instruments. Numerous and differently phrased questions have been posed by artists, architects, artisans, writers, and others concerning the overall influences of various types of communication. Many researchers, working within the relevant concerns of their disciplines, have also sought possible theories or laws of cause and effect to explain the ways in which human dispositions are affected by certain kinds of communication under certain circumstances, and the reasons for the change.

In the 1960s a Canadian educator, Marshall McLuhan , drew the threads of interest in the field of communication into a view that associated many contemporary psychological and sociological phenomena with the media employed in modern culture . McLuhan’s often repeated idea, “the medium is the message,” stimulated numerous filmmakers, photographers, artists, and others, who adopted McLuhan’s view that contemporary society had moved (or was moving) from a “print” culture to a “visual” one. The particular forms of greatest interest to McLuhan and his followers were those associated with the sophisticated technological instruments for which young people in particular display enthusiasm—namely, motion pictures, television, and sound recordings.

In the late 20th century the main focus of interest in communication drifted away from McLuhanism and began to centre on (1) the mass communication industries, the people who run them, and the effects they have upon their audiences, (2) persuasive communication and the use of technology to influence dispositions, (3) processes of interpersonal communication as mediators of information, (4) dynamics of verbal and nonverbal (and perhaps extrasensory) communication between individuals, (5) perception of different kinds of communications, (6) uses of communication technology for social and artistic purposes, including education in and out of school, and (7) development of relevant criticism for artistic endeavours employing modern communications technology.

In short, a communication expert may be oriented to any of a number of disciplines in a field of inquiry that has, as yet, neither drawn for itself a conclusive roster of subject matter nor agreed upon specific methodologies of analysis.

Chapter 6: 21st-century media and issues

6.10.2 Social media and communication (research essay)

Lindsey Matier

English 102, April 2021

Communication is extremely important in today’s world, whether it be verbal or nonverbal. It can take place through many different forms such as through writing, speaking, listening and physical actions. These forms of communication evolve and continue to improve over time. As humans, we rely on communication for almost everything and it is a way of life. Communication has evolved from talking to writing letters to texting or talking over the phone. Every time a new form of communication is brought up and becomes more popular, we have to adapt and evolve to that new lifestyle. Throughout all the new forms of communication and ways of evolving, social media has been one of the most influential so far. Social media has allowed us to create new ways of communicating, such as texting or posting through different apps. It can connect us with people all over the world and give us a platform to express ourselves in ways that have not been possible before. While social media started off as a small form of technology, it has morphed into aspects of our everyday life. Now there are apps for everything from social media profiles to online shopping. While social media and technology itself has evolved, this has also affected our communication with each other and the world. Social media has created a fast track for information in a matter of seconds. It can give people a platform with millions of followers overnight for doing practically anything. It can help people express themselves in new ways and connect with people who have similar interests. The end goal of social media is to make people happy and ultimately make lives easier.

Introduction

With all this being said, it is evident that social media is in our everyday lives and will continue to change. It has a very strong grip on society as social media usage continues to rise throughout the years. Generalizing social media, we are exposed to forms of media at almost all times of the day. Answering the question of what media is will help give a better understanding of social media as a whole. Media can be defined as a way of mass communication. This could include siting in the car listening to ads on the radio all the way to scrolling on twitter. We are exposed to social media less often than generalized media, but it tends to come in greater quantities when exposed. For example, for people that wake up and check twitter it is an instant flood of information with every scroll. Everything from politics to sports to celebrity news is available at the fingertips. The concern is not all focused on the overwhelming information, but also the overwhelming number of comments and opinions. If we wanted to debate or talk about something before social media it had to be done in person, face to face. Now with social media, we are able to fight with people in comment sections on a backup account with a different name and no connection to who we really are. This new form of communication takes away the vulnerability of speaking to people and having genuine conversation, and makes up for it in internet trolls. Overall, social media is impacting the way we communicate with each other and the real questions are: Is social media impacting us in a positive or negative way? Do the positive aspects outweigh the negative aspects? Is social media hindering the way we communicate in person with each other? Is their more room for improvement when it comes to dealing with communication in the social media spectrum? How is social media impacting younger generation’s communication versus older generation’s communication? How can we help improve our communication skills on social media and in real life?

Personal Research 

Along with the other studies that I found from the sources I chose, I also conducted my own study to determine more accurate and recent data. I asked students mostly within high school and college range questions relating to social media and communication. I tried to get a wide range of data dealing with social media apps, screen time, and overall communication as a result of social media. I expected to see almost all negative responses about social media and communication. I figured that most people would respond saying that it has affected them negatively rather than positively, but the results were different compared to what I expected.

The first questions I asked had to do with social media itself. I asked questions about their most used social media apps, screen time, what age they were allowed to start using social media, and whether or not they think social media has had a negative or positive impact on them. As expected, most of the social media apps were some of the most popular ones like Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok. Overall, the average screen time for all apps was evenly split between 4-6 and 6-8 hours, which I also expected. Something that did surprise me was the amount of time spent on certain social media apps. The data was split pretty evenly three ways and all between 1-4 hours. The next two questions dealt with when they group surveyed started using social media. I asked these questions because a lot of the points I want to discuss later in my paper have to deal with age and whether younger generations are suffering when it comes to communication. More than half the people surveyed said that they wished that they had waited to get social media until they were older. Some said that it is not appropriate for younger kids and that it is just toxic in general. Something that I really like that a couple people mentioned was that in reality, social media at a young age is stupid and useless. A lot of people said they wish they would have enjoyed their childhood more and they would be more extroverted now if they had not been exposed that early. The last question of this section that I asked was if they thought social media has had a more positive or negative impact on them. Overall, the data was split but leaning slightly towards the more positive side. The positive answers mostly dealt with being able to talk to stay in contact with people and meeting new friends. The negative answers all related to mental health and feeling bad about themselves. A lot of people said it is toxic and very controlling and takes up too much of our time.

The next set of questions I asked had to do more with communication and interaction with and without social media. I asked questions like how they feel about social media and how it has impacted their communication, their mental health, and if it has made our lives easier. I decided to ask questions like these because I figured I would get a wide range of responses and a lot of people’s different opinions. I started off by asking if people are an introvert or an extrovert to get an idea of what the responses would be like, and 66% said somewhere in between the two. The response for the next question really shocked me because I received such a one-side response. I asked if they think social media has impacted their communication and the way they interact with others and 75% (18/24 people) said yes. This is the information that I was looking for along with the next two questions. The next question asked if they think social media has negatively impacted their mental health and 50% said yes. I also plan on using this as a research question to show that social media can affect our mental health and therefore affect the way we interact with and around other people. The last two questions are similar but the responses were both very good. Almost everyone answered yes to the question asking if social media has made our lives easier. Everyone that answered yes said they think so because it helps them talk to friends, stay in touch with people they do not see as much, and meet new people that they are comfortable talking to. The people that said no also made good points such as it takes over our lives and it is filled with too much hate and cancel culture. I agree with both sides and am very happy that people can feel a positive response especially when it comes to communicating with other people online. The last question I asked was used to wrap up the whole survey and topic. I asked if they think social media has made our generation’s communication improve or worsen. The data was pretty evenly split, and most people gave a positive and a negative. The people that said improve gave that answer because they said it broadens our communication and allows us to talk to people at a wider range. The people who said it has made it worse all said that it is ruining our face-to-face interaction and causing us to lose emotion. They said that some people do not even know how to have a proper in person conversation and that they are too dependent on their phones. Overall, I agree with both arguments that people made but I do think that the positives outweigh the negatives in most of these situations and questions.

Research Questions

The first question I want to ask has to deal with the overall social media and communication connection and has multiple other questions I would like to cover within it. The main question is: Is social media hindering the way we communicate with each other? I also want to touch on questions like: Is social media impacting us in a positive or negative way? Do the positives outweigh the negatives? The second set of research questions I have is: Is their more room for improvement when it comes to dealing with communication in the social media spectrum? How can we help improve our communication skills on social media and in real life? How is social media impacting younger generation’s communication versus older generation’s communication?

Research Question One

Social media and communication have a direct connection to each other and both have a strong impact on the outcome of the other. My first research question has to do with that. My questions center around how social media has impacted our communication, and whether or not it is positive or negative. First, I think it is important to note the changes and different characteristics that come into play when talking about this. Things like age and problems going on in our world can affect our social media usage and communication. While we connect to people on a deeper level when talking to the in person, social media has also given us a newer and more broad way of communicating. The article “How Social Media Affects Our Ability to Communicate” by Stacey Hanke, talks about different ways social media has impacted our communication. Social media has become so relevant in our day to day lives and Hanke describes it in a couple different ways. She describes it as information binging and the fear of missing out, social graces and conversational boredom. Within these, she explains how social media has become an excuse and escape to talk to people face to face. Hanke also talks about how even though it is limiting our in person communication, it can sometimes make communicating in general easier, by being able to talk to each other in just a few words (Hanke 1). In another article by Ryan J. Fuller titled “The Impact of Social Media Use on Our Social Skills”, he discusses similar topics to Hanke’s article but also brings up more positive attributes of social media. Fuller starts of his article by giving some statistics, stating that 75% of teens own cellphones and 25% of them using it for social media, and also says that they use 7.5 hours a day using it (Fuller 1). I am glad that this was brought up because it is important to know how much time is spent on social media, scrolling through feed. Next, Fuller starts to discuss some of the benefits of social media. He briefly explains how social media is beneficial because we are able to stay in touch with our friends and family, and share important parts of our lives with them. He also explains how it helps people reach out to new friends and provide themselves with more opportunities (Fuller 1). Overall, I really like that he mentioned these because it is important to keep in mind the vast majority of social media and communication. While some use it for more simpler purposes likes just keeping up to date with what is going on in the world, others use it to make new friends, find new job opportunities, and stay in touch with people. Another topic I find important when it comes to answering this research question is how Covid affected everything. With the pandemic, we were left inside with nothing to do but what was at our fingertips. This pandemic increased social media usage drastically. The article “Social Media Insights Into US Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Longitudinal Analysis of Twitter Data” by Danny Valdez et al, shows extensive research into determining just how much social media usage in the United States increased during the pandemic. They did experiments and surveys to determine multiple responses to research questions and show how much we rely on social media to communicate with each other. During the pandemic, everyone spent more time on their social media and their phone in general, probably more than they would like to admit. The article helps give more insight into this claim. There is the idea that social media was meant as an addition to our lives. For some people, it has become an addiction and a new piece of their life. The article focuses on how social media could be a toxic place and have a negative effect on our mental health. The time period for this information focuses around the COVID-19 pandemic. Using data from Twitter, Valdez created a study to determine the mood of people during the pandemic and the usage throughout (Valdez et al 2). Collecting tweets with certain hashtags and during time periods, the goal was to determine how much the pandemic affected people’s moods, and how much they put out and shared on social media. They used hashtags, timeline data, and tweets from different periods such as the first lockdown, different stay at home orders, etc. Given the responses to the data, they were able to determine the increase in social media usage. We cannot determine if this had a positive or negative effect on the people who were using Twitter, but we can infer that social media is becoming a key part of our lives. Not being able to talk to people as much in person during the first few months of the pandemic greatly affected communication, in positive and negative ways. Communication over the phone increased due to the amount of free time that people had and were able to spend talking to others. Contrary to that, in person communication also decreased given that people were not really allowed to leave the house. The next article by Tayebi et al, “The Role of Information Systems in Communication Through Social Media” focuses a lot about how we have evolved over time with social media and communication. They start off by talking about how social networks are like social media societies. They explain it by resembling it to a human society, as it is filled with people communicating, regardless of time or place. They also exemplify other aspects such as emotional support, information, emotions (Tayebi 2). Social media is constantly looked at through such a negative light due to some of the major bad events that have taken place. While it can be difficult at times to look past the negatives, it is important to recognize and acknowledge the positives. The growth of scientific research would not be possible without the amount of information received from the media (Tayebi 3). Without social media and media in general, we would not be where we are today as a society. As mentioned earlier, it is so easy to get lost in the negative aspects of social media and discard the positive ones. Positive parts of social media such as widespread communication and unlimited access to information makes it all worth it. Staying on topic with positive aspects of social media and communication, social media in the workplace has also broken down barriers for communication. The article “A Guide to the Successful Use of Social Media in the Workplace” by Clark Boyd gives insight into how social media has improved the workplace, and ultimately communication and interaction as a whole. Companies can use social media as a form of branding and way to communicate their products (Boyd 4). Boyd states, “Harvard Business Review finds that 82% of employees believe social media improves work relationships. Left to their own devices, your teams will connect and communicate on social networks, both inside and outside the office.” This directly relates to the research question asking whether social media hinders our communication with each other. Social media also helps when it comes to dealing with complaints placed online. By seeing these through social media, it can help the company communicate either with the person or their company the concerns that are being stated (Boyd 9). Overall, it is safe to say that social media has directly affected communication throughout different aspects of our lives.

Research Question Two

My second set of research questions has a lot to do with the future and how we can improve. Questions such as: Is their more room for improvement when it comes to dealing with communication in the social media spectrum? How can we help improve our communication skills on social media and in real life? How is social media impacting younger generation’s communication versus older generation’s communication? The article “What is Literacy” by James Paul Gee talks a lot about the basics of communication. I find this an important article to talk about before I go into more detail with this second research question. Gee explains discourse as a socially accepted way of speaking, thinking, and acting (Gee 1). It is important to note this because social media has changed that discourse for us. We no longer communicate and interact the same way in which we use to therefore almost giving us a new discourse. Another thing Gee discusses is identity kits. Gee explains identity kits as “appropriate costumes and instructions on how to act and talk” (Gee 2). This relates to social media because there is a certain way we communicate online that we wouldn’t do in person. For example, we use emojis and abbreviations to communicate on social media or over text, but this is something we would not do when communicating face-to-face. There are also some basic well-known rules of social media that follow along the lines of an identity kit. Such as, for Instagram it is a common idea not to like people’s pictures from too long ago. When you say this aloud it sounds like it is not a big deal and silly almost, but for people that use social media it is something that makes sense. The next article is going to focus more on the question that has to do with room for improvement of communication. The article “The Positive Effect of Not Following Others on Social Media” by Francesca Valsesia, Davide Proserpio, and Joseph C. Nunes involves how we deal with social media and how we react to it. The article has a lot to do with pyramid schemes and marketing schemes on social media, simply due to follower count. Social media has a lot of power over us and the content we see. Influencers have too much impact on what we see every day and this overall effects our communication (Valsesia 1). Social media feeds us information at our fingertips, whether it be true or false. Valsesia is trying to get the point across that social media has no impact on our lives without the phone and therefore, having a smaller follower count is better for our communication and overall wellbeing in the first place. Leading into my next article, social media can have a huge impact on the younger generation. This leads into part of my second research question dealing with the younger generation and their communication. The article “The Impact of Social Media on Youth Mental Health: Challenges and Opportunities” by Jacqueline Nesi shows how social media is a very complex brand of information and makes it complicated for everyone. Younger kids having access to it and multiple devices like computers and phones makes it that much more difficult. There are a lot of positives and negatives for younger kids having access to social media and the internet in general. It has an impact on their mental health and studies show it leads to signs of depression, body dysmorphia, eating disorders (Nesi 2). It can also affect their communication and outward identity due to things such as bullying, internet drama, and behavioral problems. While it does have serious negative risks, social media also can bring a lot of new positive ones. Things like creative ideas, humor and entertainment, and being able to explore their identity are all really great positives that social media gives us (Nesi 4). Most of them using it as a way to connect with friends and family and help them feel a sense of acceptance and belonging (Nesi 4). Similarly to this, social media has given a great outlet for kids and young adults to speak out on issues going on in the world. The article “Building Bridges: Exploring the Communication Trends and Perceived Sociopolitical Benefits of Adolescents Engaging in Online Social Justice Efforts” by Mariah Elsa Kornbluh goes into detail about the racial injustices in the world and how they are communicated through social media. Social media networks can help connect kids to different backgrounds and aspects of their lives (Kornbluh 1). Kornbluh expresses how a society only can flourish under civic engagement and being able to express ourselves, and social media is helping us do that. It is helping the younger generation prepare for the civic role that they will undergo (Kornbluh 2). Social media helps play a major role in participating in political movements and bringing awareness to topics (Kornbluh 3). This all is done by the younger generation and would not be possible without them. So, while it is easy to look at the negative parts of social media and how it effects the younger generation, it also brings great awareness to real life problems in our world. This last article I wanted to go over dealing with this research question has to do with the pandemic. The article “Responses to COVID-19 in Higher Education: Social Media Usage for Sustaining Formal Academic Communication in Developing Countries” by Abu Elnasr E. Sobaih, Ahmed M. Hasanein and Ahmed E. Abu Elnasr briefly talks about communication with social media in higher education systems. Education systems had to switch from in person learning and communication to online learning, which was a struggle for everyone. Throughout the time that this took place, results showed that social media had a positive effect on students dealing with this (Sobaih 1). Students used social media to build a community and help support each other through this rough time. Through these results, proper usage of social media can be shown as a positive result for a new era of learning (Sobaih 1). This is just one more reason why social media can help us improve our future.

After answering my research questions, it has become clear to me that while social media does have negative aspects, the positive aspects outweigh them. Between the articles and my own research, I have enough evidence to prove that social media does effect communication, but in a more positive way. The way we act and present ourselves is heavily influenced by social media and communication between generations are different and can be seen that way. It is important to note the accomplishments we have made as a society with social media and the media in general. It has helped connect families, provide support groups, and provide entertainment in desperate times. Our communication has changed because of social media but has changed and helped us for the better in the long run. Keeping social media a positive place and staying away from the toxic people on it will only help us grow and learn new things about ourselves.

Works Cited

Boyd, Clark. “A Guide to Using Social Media in the Workplace in 2021.”  The Blueprint , The Blueprint, 13 May 2020, www.fool.com/the-blueprint/social-media-in-the-workplace/.

https://www.fool.com/the-blueprint/social-media-in-the-workplace/

D, Valdez, et al. “Social Media Insights Into US Mental Health During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Longitudinal Analysis of Twitter Data.”  Journal of Medical Internet Research  , vol. 22, no. 12, 14 Dec. 2020, pp. 1438–8871.

http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.proxy.ulib.csuohio.edu:2050/eds/detail/detail? vid=8&sid=ff59b04c-b868-44cd-b864-4538e112a2ea%40sessionmgr103&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#AN=33284783&db=mnh

J, Nesi. “The Impact of Social Media on Youth Health: Challenges and Opportunities.”  North Carolina Medical Journal , vol. 81, no. 2, 2020, pp. 116–121.

http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.proxy.ulib.csuohio.edu:2050/eds/detail/detail?vid=10&sid=ff59b04c-b868-44cd-b864-4538e112a2ea%40sessionmgr103&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#AN=32132255&db=mnh

Gee, James Paul. “What is literacy.”  Negotiating academic literacies: Teaching and learning  across languages and cultures  (1998): 51-59.

https://academic.jamespaulgee.com/pdfs/Gee%20What%20is%20Literacy.pdf

Hanke, Stacey. “How Social Media Affects Our Ability to Communicate.”  Thrive Global , 13  Sept. 2018, thriveglobal.com/stories/how-social-media-affects-our-ability-to-communicate/.

https://thriveglobal.com/stories/how-social-media-affects-our-ability-to-communicate/

http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.proxy.ulib.csuohio.edu:2050/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&sid=467b825c-34f8-4e47-95df-e5b2b61bbaf4%40sessionmgr4006

Kornbluh, Mariah Elsa. “Building Bridges.”  Youth & Society , vol. 51, no. 8, 2017, pp. 1104–1126., doi:10.1177/0044118×17723656.

https://journals-sagepub-com.proxy.ulib.csuohio.edu/doi/pdf/10.1177/0044118X17723656

Retchin, Sarah, et al. “The Impact of Social Media Use on Social Skills.”  New York Behavioral Health , 1 Dec. 2020, newyorkbehavioralhealth.com/the-impact-of-social-media-use-on-social-skills/.

https://newyorkbehavioralhealth.com/the-impact-of-social-media-use-on-social-skills/

Sobaih, Abu Elnasr E., et al. “Responses to COVID-19 in Higher Education: Social Media Usage for Sustaining Formal Academic Communication in Developing Countries.”  MDPI , Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 12 Aug. 2020, www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/16/6520/htm.

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/16/6520/htm

Tayeb, Seyed Mohammad, et al. “The Role of Information Systems in Communication through Social Media.”  International Journal of Data and Network Science , vol. 3, no. 3, 2019, pp. 245–268., doi:10.5267/j.ijdns.2019.2.002.

http://www.growingscience.com/ijds/Vol3/ijdns_2019_15.pdf

Valsesia, Francesca, et al. “The Positive Effect of Not Following Others on Social Media .”  Journal of Marketing Research  , vol. 57, no. 6, Dec. 2020, pp. 1152–1168.

https://www.francescavalsesia.com/uploads/1/0/5/1/105151509/the_positive_effect_of_not_following_others_on_social_media.pdf

Understanding Literacy in Our Lives by Lindsey Matier is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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• Relationships

Why Communication Matters

We communicate to create, maintain, and change relationships and selves..

Posted July 15, 2021 | Reviewed by Vanessa Lancaster

• Why Relationships Matter
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• How we communicate helps relationships get off on the right foot, navigate problems, and change over time.
• In communication, we develop, create, maintain, and alter our relationships.
• We communicate to work our way through family changes and challenges in verbal and non-verbal ways.

I remember seeing a poster on my junior high classroom wall: “Communication is the Beginning of Understanding.” This spoke to me at the time. Yet, like so many people, I had never really thought much about communication. I would have described communication as sending and receiving messages.

Communication Is More Than Sending and Receiving Messages

In reality, communication is often about transmitting information. We send and receive messages with people in our lives. Daily, much of our communication consists of coordinating schedules, “What time are you getting home for dinner?” and negotiating whose turn it is to do the dishes, pay the bills, or take dinner to a friend who is ill. We send messages like, “It is your turn to let the dog out” and receive messages like, “Don’t forget to get dog food at the store” (if you have not guessed, a lot of the messages in my house are about the dog).

We might also blame problems on communication, talking about “communication breakdowns” or on a “lack of communication.” If we think about communication in these ways, we have missed so much that is important about communication. We have neglected how and why communication matters.

Communication Matters to Creating and Changing Relationships

We become aware of how Communication Matters when

• We confront issues with work-life balance.
• We experience positive events like the birth of a baby or winning an award.
• We have a friend does who does not do or say what we expect.
• We have disagreements over religious beliefs or political values.

Both positive and challenging events affect, reflect, and change our identity and the identity of our personal and family relationships. What do I mean by this? How did these relationships come into being? Well, think about the last time you started a new friendship or had a new member join your family. Through what you and the other person said and did, what we’d call verbal and nonverbal communication , these relationships took shape.

Sometimes relationships develop easily and clearly. They are healthy and pleasant. Other times, relationships develop in stress and storm and may be healthy or not. How we communicate helps relationships get off on the right foot, navigate problems, and change over time.

What is important to understand is that relationships are talked into (and out of) being. In communication, we develop, create, maintain, and alter our relationships. As we communicate, we become and change who we are. Think about how you have grown and changed as you communicate at home, at work, with friends, and in your community.

Communication Matters to Relationship and Family Identity

As we communicate, we co-create relationships and our own identity. As you think about your close relationships and your family, you can likely recall important events, both positive and negative, that impacted how you understand your relationship and yourself as a person.

Consider this example: one of my college students described a childhood family ritual of going out on the front lawn on Christmas Eve. The family sang Christmas carols and threw carrots on the roof for Santa’s reindeers. The family still does this annual carrot-throwing ritual in adulthood. You can picture them bringing their sometimes confused new partners and spouses out in the snow to throw carrots onto the roof and sing.

Why does this family still throw carrots and sing? Through this seemingly silly ritual, the family celebrates who they are as a family and the togetherness that is important to them. The family creates space for new people to join the family. Through their words and actions, members of the family teach their new partners how to be family members through carrot throwing and other vital experiences.

I am sure you can point to experiences that have been central to creating your relationships and your identity.

Communication Matters as We Face Change and Challenges

We also communicate to work our way through family changes and challenges. Family members or others may have different expectations of what our family and personal identity or should be. This is especially true when a family does not fit dominant cultural models, such as single-parent families, multi-ethnic families, stepfamilies, LGBTQ families, or adoptive families.

For me, becoming a stepfamily was highly challenging. We became a stepfamily when I was 12 years old. My mother had recently died, and my Dad surprised us, kids, introducing us to the woman he wanted to marry. We no longer matched the other families in the neighborhood where we’d lived most of our lives. We certainly did not feel like a family overnight.

It took my stepfamily several years to create an understanding of what it meant to be a family. As we interacted, and with many mistakes and some successes, we slowly came to understand what we needed and expected from each other to be a family.

For all of us, relationship and family identity is constantly developing and changing. In my case, I remember my stepmom reminding me to wear a jacket when going out in the evening, even into my 40s, and giving me advice about my health. At some point, our roles changed, and now, as she moves toward her 80s, more often than not, I am in the role of asking about her health and helping her with significant decisions. What it means to be a mother or daughter and what we expect of each other and ourselves change as we interact.

Communication Matters . Whether we are negotiating whose turn it is to feed the dog, how to become a parent, how to interact with a difficult co-worker, or how to celebrate with a friend who won a major award, it is in communication that we learn what to do and say. This is what I will write about in this blog as I reflect on what I have learned as a professor and researcher of interpersonal and family communication. I invite you to go on this journey with me. I hope to give you insights into your communication.

Communication Matters. Communication is the Beginning of Understanding . It is an exciting and ever-changing journey.

Baxter, L. A. (2004). Relationships as dialogues. Personal Relationships, 11 , 1-22. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-6811.2004.00068.x

Braithwaite, D. O., Foster, E. A., & Bergen, K. M. (2018). Social construction theory: Communication co-creating families. In D. O. Braithwaite, E. A. Suter, & K. Floyd. (Eds.). Engaging theories in family communication: Multiple perspectives (2nd ed., pp. 267-278). Routledge.

Braithwaite, D. O., Waldron, V. R., Allen, J., Bergquist, G., Marsh, J., Oliver, B., Storck, K., Swords, N., & Tschampl-Diesing, C. (2018). “Feeling warmth and close to her”: Communication and resilience reflected in turning points in positive adult stepchild-stepparent relationships. Journal of Family Communication, 18 , 92-109. doi: 10.1080/15267431.2017.1415902

Dawn O. Braithwaite, Ph.D., a professor of communication at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, studies families and close relationships, especially step- and chosen families.

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Essays on Human Communication

7 samples on this topic

The array of written assignments you might receive while studying Human Communication is stunning. If some are too difficult, an expertly crafted sample Human Communication piece on a related subject might lead you out of a dead end. This is when you will definitely appreciate WowEssays.com ever-widening database of Human Communication essay samples meant to catalyze your writing creativity.

Our directory of free college paper samples showcases the most striking instances of excellent writing on Human Communication and related topics. Not only can they help you develop an interesting and fresh topic, but also demonstrate the effective use of the best Human Communication writing practices and content organization techniques. Also, keep in mind that you can use them as a source of reliable sources and factual or statistical data processed by real masters of their craft with solid academic experience in the Human Communication area.

Alternatively, you can take advantage of practical write my essay assistance, when our writers provide a unique example essay on Human Communication tailored to your individual specifications!

Symbolic Interaction Theory: A Sample Essay For Inspiration & Mimicking

Example of essay on supporting point 1.

ESSAY PLAN & ESSAY

Part A. ESSAY PLAN Thesis Statement: No two people can see the world in exactly the same way because of differences in their status, gender, culture, traditions and environment where they were raised as shown through non-verbal communication. Non-verbal communication can create barriers between people and may elicit different interpretations and responses based on the people’s personal beliefs, status and expectations.

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• Essay On Importance Of Communication

Importance of Communication Essay

500+ words importance of communication essay.

For every human being, communication is one of the essential parts of our lives. People build relationships in their personal and professional lives based on communication. Effective communication works as a foundation for respect and trust to grow. It helps in better understanding a person and the context of the conversation. People always believe that their way of communication is better than others. To communicate effectively, individuals should understand the motion behind the said information. We know that communication is effortless, but miscommunication between two or more individuals sometimes leads to conflicts and distress. Building relationships at home, work, and social affairs will be easier if you know the right way to communicate effectively. It is required to have better communication skills such as non-verbal communication, listening and managing stress can improve the relationship between individuals.

Meaning of Communication

Communication is essential for all of us, whether humans or animals. Communication is a part of written and spoken language, and altogether it completes the communication process. Both use different languages to communicate because it’s hard to survive in this world without communication.

Good communication skills are all about exchanging ideas and thoughts to convey information. It is a two-way conversation that includes vocalisation as well as a gesture. One of the crucial purposes of communication is to express ideas, needs or thoughts, and one’s beliefs with clarity for a mutually accepted solution.

Communication skills cannot be underestimated. Before languages were invented, people communicated with their hand gestures, body language, etc. We all require better communication skills at every step of our life. Personal and professional life will get hampered if you lack practical communication.

Importance of Effective Communication

People understand the importance of communication, but sometimes they cannot communicate through communication. It happens due to a lack of better communication skills. Below, we have discussed a few ways to communicate effectively.

• Interruption: It becomes very annoying when someone disrupts you while talking. It looks pretty unethical to disrupt someone while talking constantly, and the conversation can take a different turn. So, while talking, let the other person complete their talk before you start talking.
• Listen patiently: Listen patiently when someone tries to make a healthy conversation. It is one of the ways to do effective communication, as it gives a clear understanding of what the person is trying to say.
• View your body language: Body language speaks about your personality. Some people make uncomfortable gestures through their body language. So, you should keep your body language friendly and warm rather than keeping it arrogant.
• Do not go over your point: Communication is all about expressing thoughts so that the other person can understand. It is not that you are trying to prove something correct and the other person incorrect. Some people try to win the conservation, which leads to struggles and arguments.
• Watch your words: Before telling someone something, make sure you know what you are saying. We often say things that we should not do out of anger or anxiety. Remember, once spoken, words can not be withdrawn. Thus, it is suggested that you do not say something that you can regret later.
• Practice: If there is a professional meeting where you need to communicate about your product or work, it is recommended to practise already. Practise in front of the mirror or with a friend only. Choose how your conversation will begin, all the points you cover, and how you will end it.

As many people may feel comfortable communicating, communication is an art developed through practice and evaluation; every good communicator passes through a process to learn communication and practice skills, review themselves, and decrease where they can be.

Communication is essential to share our thoughts and feelings to live a happy life. Better communication makes us feel better about everything surrounding us and makes us suffer less. So, it is necessary to learn the art of communication to put across one point well.

Therefore, communication is a vital aspect of our existence. Effective communication can be achieved by being mindful of different elements of communication. Using appropriate communication in appropriate settings is essential for effective communication.

From our BYJU’S website, students can also access CBSE Essays related to different topics. It will help students to get good marks in their exams.

Frequently asked Questions on the Importance of communication Essay

How important is communication.

Communication of ideas, and thoughts is an important skill to be acquired. Conveying things in an effective manner is necessary for both our personal and professional lives.

What are types of communication?

There are 4 main types of communication are verbal, non verbal, visual and written forms of communication.

What are the factors that act as a barrier for communication?

Language is obviously the biggest barrier for communication between peoples of the world. Then comes the physical barrier. Geographical separation hinders communication. There are other factors like the gender barrier, cultural differences that prevail in the society. Last but not the least, emotional barriers too hinder proper understanding between persons involved in communication.

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Psychology Discussion

Essay on language and communication | human behaviour | psychology.

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In this essay we will discuss about language and communication.

Essay on Language:

Language is often described as the sine-qua-non or the most important and distinguishing characteristic of a culture or civilisation. There has been a the consistent relationship between the level of advancement of a society and the complexity and development of its language. In fact, one may say that civilisation or for that matter the very idea of knowledge is closely intertwined with language.

Scientists interested in the study of the evolution of behaviour of societies point out that there are four distinct features which have made the human organism distinctly superior to the highest evolved sub-human organisms like the chimpanzee. These are, attainment of an erect posture, the growth of the cerebral cortex and its complexity, the prolonged period of socialisation, and finally the acquisition of advanced and complex linguistic capacities and abilities.

While the first three are purely biological or related to biological factors this is not the case with language. Language skills of the human being have been growing and will continue to grow. In fact, while the brain structure, erect posture and socialisation have essentially remained the same throughout human history, the story is different in the case of language.

Languages have grown in complexity, quality, flexibility, finesse and versatility. While animals and to some extent even the earliest human beings mostly depended on gestures and movements, in contemporary society, verbal language is the most characteristic medium of interaction.

This verbal language has come to engulf our lives in every sphere and today one cannot think of advances or development in any sphere of life without the involvement of language. Thus, human society has evolved music as a language, the numerical system as a language, dance as a language, Morse code and today a variety of computer languages.

Nature of Language:

Language is essentially a set of signs and symbols which have certain fixed meanings, evolved in each society. It is this fixed denotation which makes languages so essential and crucial.

The signs or symbols may be sounds, words, light signals, gestures, facial expressions, geometrical signs, and body postures. These signs can be verbal or non-verbal, visual or auditory, animate or inanimate. Thus a traffic light is an inanimate visual sign.

The telephone bell is an inanimate and auditory symbol while the expression of a dancer is a visual and animate symbol. When you get up to interrupt your teacher while he is teaching, he makes a gesture and you sit down. This is visual and animate. Thus, we see that when we talk of a language, it is just not the mere verbal language that we mean though that represents the most complex and advanced from of language behaviour.

It is obvious that any language can develop only in a society or social context. So, the nature of the society and social interactions play a very crucial role in determining several aspects of language, particularly the linguistic form of language. This is true both at a collective level, the evolution of a language, and also at the level of an individual, the acquisition of language abilities.

Of course, there is a view that certain forms of language structure are universal and innate and that even some animals exhibit some sort of language behaviour. But, even if there are innate and universal language structures, it is undeniable that verbal language is very much a product of social life interaction and social evolution.

It is estimated that human beings have used some form or the other of a spoken language for more than a million years or even three million years. However, written language is estimated to be only about 7,000 years old. This latter perhaps is an underestimation, and even written language is probably older than this.

This clearly shows that language behaviour in a spoken or written form has been very closely associated with the whole evolution of human societies. Languages appears to have played a very crucial role in social evolution, the emergence of civilisation and unfolding of social life in all its aspects including social degeneration.

If an individual who lived in this world a million years ago and who was speaking some language of his period were to come alive again, he will be amazed at the complexity of modern languages. Perhaps, he will not be able to recognise them as languages. Thus, modern languages have become much more complex, complicated, rich in vocabulary and above all show variance from one language to another, some with a long vocabulary. Idioms and sentences are combinations and re-combinations of a limited number of basic sound units called phonemics corresponding to vowels and sentences though not exactly the same.

The number of basic phonemics used by different languages in the world are limited and range between 15 to 85, the English language using about 45 such phonemics. Combination of these phonemics in different ways and manners leads to the formation of morphemes which some linguists compare to words though morphemes are not exactly similar to words and certainly not identical.

It is sometimes estimated that a very highly educated individual learns to recognise about 1, 00,000 morphemes out of the basic 45 phonemics the average being around 10,000. A few studies by Templin and Irwin have shown that there are very wide individual variations depending on socio-economic status, educational background, intelligence, availability of learning opportunities, etc.

A number of other factors also seem to contribute to these variations. Thus, we may see how fantastic languages are in that, though their basic units are limited, their combinations in various ways have resulted in the generation of unlimited number of morphemes. We may thus say that language is an open system, even mild variations in the intonations of these phonemics can result in new morphemes.

Evolution of Language:

One observation which has been engaging the attention of life scientists including psychologists is that many of the activities which we see at the human level are also seen in the behaviour of sub-human organisms. This interest is a direct result of the Darwinian theory of evolution.

Stated simply the question runs as follows:

Do sub-human organisms exhibit and employ a particular activity or activities seen at the human level, and if so how far down the levels of the evolution ladder this activity is seen?

Further, if these activities are found to be present at the lower levels do they serve the same purposes as they do at the human level? Do they show the same degree of complexity and individual variations? Are the differences between sub-human forms of such activities and human forms different only in degree or are they also qualitatively different?

This search for the presence of human level activities at the level of the lower organisms has been extended to languages also. Scholars have been trying to explore whether there exists some forms of social interaction among animals based on languages. Some of the earliest and classical studies of Wheeler and Fabre have shown evidence for the existence of some elementary forms of social organisation among animals and insects.

It has also been shown that some forms of social interaction and communication exist among birds. A number of studies have been undertaken on sub-human organisms at higher levels like apes and chimpanzees who are the immediate evolutionary ancestors of the human beings.

Such studies have shown that they live in clans and also possess embryonic forms of power hierarchy. This being so, it is only logical for forms of communication to exist among these animals, may be these forms of communication are not linguistic.

If we define language as essentially a system of signs used for expressing and communicating, then there certainly appears to be some form of language though not necessarily phonetic in form. A number of studies involving observation of animals in situations involving coping with certain crises situations have shown that at the levels of animals while one may not find linguistic and verbal communication, nevertheless a variety of body movements, sounds and even emission of certain odours exist and play a definite communicative role and perform functions including expression, influencing, signalling, etc.

Thus, certain sounds are made when an enemy is seen as an expression of a felt threat which in turn acts as a communication to other members of the group, thereby influencing their action and making them run away. Such sounds or actions constitute ‘display or exhibitionistic language’ to communicate with other members.

Among the geese, a set of vocal displays have been repeatedly observed to prepare to escape as a group. Vocalization or other forms of sounds have been found in birds during hatching seasons and these vocalizations set in motion a general reaction to make other birds react in a similar manner. Touch language is also prevalent as preliminary to mating between two members of the same species – one male and the other a female.

Animals at the higher levels of the animal world like apes and chimpanzees have the ability to acquire, store and retrieve information to a much simpler extent than in the case of the human. If this is the case then, at-least at the level of the chimpanzee, there should be some elementary form of language.

A strong case for the presence of such a basic language at the level of the apes has been made out by investigators like C.R. Carpenter. Carpenter and many others have identified anywhere between 9 to 20 sounds with different meanings used by apes. But the one observation has been that while such a sound language may initiate action in other members of the species, nevertheless there is no dialogue or conversation.

The language and communication seems to operate one way. Further, they are found to be used only in emotion led situations and are very situation specific as in attracting a mate or signalling the arrival of an enemy. Thus, situationised considerations of direction and guiding physiological action seem to be the main functions of such sounds. Of course, there is nothing purely verbal and in that sense nonverbal language, speech or communication among members of lower organisms seems to exist.

One may then conclude, if we look at language purely as a tool of expression and communication directed to influence the behaviour of others, there does seem to be adequate evidence to indicate the existence of some rudimentary forms of language among animals and this is in parts in the form of physical movements or sounds or directly involve display, situation specific and one way. Animals do not know how to use a word or a sentence or for that matter any form of verbiage.

Certain investigators however, have gone a little further and tried to find out whether even if there is evidence in the case of higher level animals like gorillas or chimpanzees about their having a language, do they have the structural capacity of the brain? This has been doubted by another group of investigators.

Similarly, one can raise the question, can we teach human language to the apes? A few interesting studies have been undertaken in this regard. In a very interesting study along these lines, Keith Hays and Cathy Hays adopted an infant chimpanzee Vicki and brought her up as a human child.

Despite intensive efforts they found that all attempts to teach Vicki to speak like a human child were futile, Vicki being able to utter hardly three barely recognisable words or sounds after three years of teaching. But at the same time, they found that although Vicki could not utter these words, she was able to comprehend many more words of the English language. Thus, in many other chimpanzees who were studied, it was found that though there is no ability on the part of the animals to utter or speak, they were able to understand and interpret.

In view of this, it was concluded that human language is unique to the human species because they are distinct from animals. But very soon the Pandora’s box was opened again. Reacting to the earlier findings that even man’s closest animal cousin, the chimpanzee could not learn the languages, critics started asking that while the chimpanzee may not be able to speak, speech is not the only component of language and that there should be other aspects of language like comprehension, interpretation, etc., and it is possible that as in the case of speech, if these processes were also investigated then the chimpanzee may be found to be more capable.

Human infants are not capable of producing many speech sounds. It has been found that this is because of their underdeveloped vocal tracts and memory and also because of their inability to make certain articulate movements needed for speech production. Lie Beevan and others found that many mature non-human primates faced the same problem as human infants.

Their vocal tracts are smaller like those of human infants. On the other hand, studies intending to find out whether primates perceive the speech sounds, in ways similar to the ways perceived by human beings, have produced mostly negative results or at any rate results which are not clear.

Overall, there appears to be a broad consensus, perhaps, tentative that primates including chimpanzees are not well endowed with the capacity to acquire the ability to communicate using speech. But, what about other aspects like comprehension?

Children who are not able to speak certainly appear to be quick in other aspects like responding, interpreting, comprehending, etc. as observed by Lenneberg and Maclean and Ruches. Beatrice and Garner undertook a pioneering investigation attempting to teach American sign language to Owashowe – a chimpanzee. Owashowe was brought up in the house trailer, interacting with a number of human beings who while in her presence never spoke verbal languages but used sign communication extensively.

Signs were used to communicate objects; questions were asked in sign form. In the beginning the progress was very slow. But by the end of about 22 weeks Owashowe could acquire a vocabulary of nearly 34 signs and use these under appropriate situations.

Though like human infants, Owashowe’s sign language initially was not very descriptive and clear, gradually situation appropriate and specific sign language was achieved. More remarkably, Owashowe after a number of minutes could combine such signs to produce sentences like “you drink”, “key open” etc.

According to many investigators like Brown, Owashowe’s language was very similar to what human children in the first stage of speech have. Other investigators like Premark based on their studies on chimpanzees arrived at more interesting conclusions.

The task involved here was slightly different. Here, the chimpanzee Sara had to learn to equate certain utterances with a set of distinctly coloured and shaped plastic pieces arranged in a pattern and stuck to a plastic board. The utterances were a pattern of sticking together a set of such pieces. Results were really surprising and the chimpanzees could learn this language to a very high degree of complexity.

Here, the attempt by the experimenter does not require the animal to translate the language into human language terms. She only had to learn a non-verbal way of uttering what was uttered by the investigator. Researches like this show that while chimpanzees may not go far in learning a human language and speak the same, their ability to code, encode and decode symbolic cognitive inputs like colour pieces, cannot be written off.

Research in this area has certainly pointed out that even at the higher level of evolution, the animals are not very capable of learning and speaking the human type language and produce speech sounds. But, because of this, one cannot say with the same degree of certainty that they do not comprehend language symbols, or forms of relations among them.

The adult human beings’ capacity for mastery of human speech is infinitely superior to that of an adult chimpanzee, but at the same time there is a lot of similarity between the vocabulary of a human infant and a chimpanzee. A chimpanzee can learn a language of different types.

Of course, it does not mean much, but one or two sounds become clear. The nature and structure of the brain and the vocal apparatus at the human level thus make a qualitative and quantitative difference in the language behaviour of sub-human organism and the human being.

Apart from this basic biological structure, there are greater number of language based interactions, and also more numerous opportunities for mastering a language, at the disposal of the human being which definitely make for a difference between human language and sub-human language.

Functions of Language:

If language is such an important part of human life, then it certainly must have served human beings very well and also useful purposes. What are the various functions of language? Essentially, as a common man sees, language has two obvious functions; first it serves a person to express oneself and then communicate.

Through an expression one is able to inform, request, persuade, threaten or influence others. This means one is able to relate one’s experiences, fears, wishes, to others and similar experiences of others. This is the beginning of social life. When people are able to express to each other, naturally they are able to interact with each other and understand what others are saying or doing. Based on such an interpretation there is the beginning of action.

This phenomenon goes on. Thus, we may see that language helps in expressing, understanding, interpreting and communicating events those inside a person and when there is a reciprocal action one can see how social interaction starts. The entire fabric of social life is thus based on an ability to express, interpret, understand and influence, first reciprocally, then in an extended manner.

Thus, one may see that language is at the very foundation of human civilisation. Perhaps, this is a very simple statement of what is happening. When I say I understand and interpret, there is a cognitive function; when I say, make others accept or act, there is a social function, one of relating myself to others.

When I talk and smile, this is an affective function. Language helps people to develop, shape perception, share interpretations, share expectations, and share expressions and also feelings and emotions. We may now briefly examine some of the basic functions of language. Some of these are obvious and others are not so obvious.

Let us for a moment imagine that a sub-human organism or a primitive human being faces for the first time a condition of hunger or fear, sees another strange animal or hears a sudden noise. Cutting across all these one would have faced a condition of disturbed equilibrium which might have resulted in the feeling of fear, surprise, joy, delight, hunger, or whatever it is.

However scientific our modern researches may be, common sense tells us that the earliest form of linguistic reaction must have originated under such a situation. A classical example is the birth cry of a new born child.

In all these instances, it may be seen that the origins of language lay in an articulation or expression of the state of the organism; but while being an act of expression, it also becomes an act of trying to understand and interpret the strange feelings or state of affairs.

Now, we may begin our attempts to understand various usages, and functions served by language or linguistic behaviour which includes the sound language of some animals and also the sign language used in various categories.

The functions of language can be classified under two or three broad categories – 1. Expressive and Communicative Functions 2. Interpretative Functions 3. Control function 4. The Functions of Remembering and Thinking 5. The Discovery of One’s Name 6. Social Functions of Language 7. Creative Functions.  

Specificities of Languages:

Various languages spoken by different groups of people differ in as many dimensions as there are to language behaviour. The simple language of a stone-age tribal community is far different from one of the developed and complex languages of today. Not only this, languages also change, grow and evolve.

For example, some languages like Latin or Sanskrit are referred to as dead languages in that they have not changed over a time because of not being actively used, particularly in speech, and also because they have not interacted with other languages. But, amidst all these variations across space, and over time, are there any universal characteristics and structures of language?

Here again there is a debate with one group of scholars who argue for the existence of universal characteristics, others deny the existence of any such universal characteristics. But the controversy notwithstanding, there are some universal characteristics of language.

Some of these are as follows:

a. Discreteness :

The message (words and sentences), in any language are brought out from a limited number of units. For example even if you utter a word like ‘brother’ in different ways the listener will understand the word in the same way. Thus in-spite of differences between American spelling and British spelling of the word ‘colour’, it means the same to all those who know English.

b. Arbitrariness:

Language terms are arbitrary. No one can explain why an elephant should be called an elephant and a man by the word man. There is no reason, or if there is any reason, we do not know. Of course, there are some words in every language where one can see a similarity between a word and the object, it denotes.

For example the word ‘kaka’ in Tamil means a crow. This word is based on the sound of the crow crowing. Such a connection is called onomatopoeic – similarity in sound. This means that tomorrow if we decide to call a cat as a cow and a cow as a cat, there is nothing to stop it.

c. Openness :

As pointed out, in every language new terms, words and messages are generated easily. Every language grows, and the number of words, sentences and idioms keep on growing depending on experience, increasing complexity of life and interaction with other people and other languages. This means no one can claim that he or she has completely learnt or mastered a certain language or the messages in a particular language.

These three characteristics-discreteness, arbitrariness and openness are universal features of all languages. The presence of such universal features has raised the question as to whether there is a certain universal language or linguistic structures present in all human beings cutting across languages and therefore, not language specific.

A leading advocate of such a view is Chomsky. According to Chomsky there are some universal structures or formal operations in languages, which underline the semantic or meaning aspect. These theorists have been trying to identify certain universalities, similarities and regularities in language behaviour across language and cultural variations.

It is hoped that such research can ultimately help in building up a universal grammar. Once such universal grammar is developed, then it is easier for one person to learn another language. But more than this, if this possibility becomes true it will help us to achieve a better understanding of the entire system of cognitive processes including speech, memory, learning, thinking and perception.

Such a view would help us to understand the innate biological processes and necessities which condition language behaviour. According to Chomsky, language behaviour is not purely learnt by accident or conditioning and much of it is biological and species-specific.

Bio-Neurological Bases of Language:

The human being is basically a biological organism, born as a biological creature becoming a social and psychological organism. Certainly, some views hold that the human being is inherently social.

Assuming that the adult human being is more social than merely physiological, it may be pointed out that, elementary forms of social behaviour are evident even in lower animals. While the human being may be much more social and complex, social nature of behaviour is not an exclusive privilege of the human organism.

Secondly, all social actions of the human organism take place only through the available bio-physiological mechanisms and if human social behaviour is much more advanced than that of the lower organisms, this is very much because of the highly advanced and developed body system he or she is endowed with, particularly the human brain.

All human actions therefore, have their basis in physiological and neurological possibilities. This is true of language behaviour including speech behaviour. The question is, how far is language behaviour including speech is determined by biological endowments. Here theories of language behaviour differ, in the degree of importance they attain biological mechanism.

Though no theory questions the essential minimal requirements of the biological equipment and mechanisms for achieving normal and effective language behaviour, some scientists like Chomsky argue that there are innately endowed biological language structures which are universal. Lenneberg believes that the unique human pattern of communication is possible only because of certain biological propensities and possibilities for complex language behaviour, particularly speech.

According to Lenneberg, there must be clear specialisation in the brain in relation to its anatomical structure and other speech related mechanisms. Further, the fact that children across the culture and sub-culture show a lot of similarities in language and speech behaviour indicates that there should be a regular and uniform pattern of development in children regardless of socio-cultural variations. Lenneberg further states that there ought to be innate and biological processes of the system which makes language development possible in spite of many handicaps and disabilities.

The failure of sub-human organisms to acquire comparable language and speech abilities, according to Lenneberg is a further proof of the unique and distinct structure and specialised characteristics of the human body particularly the cerebral cortex. Finally, Lenneberg cites the existence of language universality in phonology, syntax, grammar, etc. as evidence for the existence of universal and strong biological bases.

Essay on Communication:

One of the basic functions of language is communication. Communication plays a very important role in our lives. We communicate with members of our family who are living with us, with our friends, with our colleagues, with our bosses and everyone including a pet-dog. Let us not forget that we communicate with ourselves.

Of course, this is not the same as talking to oneself. We communicate with people who are present with us. Thus, when your mother, or the father or the teacher says something to you, this is called direct communication.

Similarly, when you talk to your friend on the telephone, this is also called direct communication. But if you are leaving on some urgent work and ask your brother to pass on a message to your parents or some other friends, this is indirect communication.

Here you are passing on a message to one person through some other person. This communication is not direct, but indirect. Similarly, a teacher teaching to a class of pupils is engaged in direct communication. This is communication between an individual on one side and a group of people on the other.

So is the case where a chief executive officer of a company calls for a meeting of his senior colleagues and addresses them; this is again direct communication with a group. On the other hand when the same chief, instructs these senior executives to pass on a message to other officers of various branches, this is an individual communicating with a group, but indirect.

Thus, in direct communication we communicate with those for whom a message is meant and in indirect communication we communicate with those to whom there is a message through somebody else and the concerned people do not receive the message themselves from us.

Now what is communication? Essentially communication is a form of social interaction where two or more people are involved. There is a transmission and exchange of information, knowledge or message. When you go to a railway booking office and find out whether accommodation is available by a certain train, you get the answer as to whether it is there or not.

Here you are seeking some information and you get the same. But in a classroom, the teacher passes on not only information but also knowledge. Newspapers provide information. But, if you are reading a book on a particular subject, you get knowledge. On the other hand if you are writing a letter to a friend or talking to him on the telephone informing him that you will be reaching him the next day at a particular place and time, this is a message.

Generally, the term communication is used to describe the kind of interaction between two or more individuals where one person or a set of people interacts with others with the intention of influencing the opinions or actions, of the latter. Thus, an advertisement is a piece of communication where the advertiser wants to influence people to buy a particular product. Clearly there is an intention behind a communication.

Along with the intention, there is also an expectation as to whether the other person or persons would do what you want them to do. Thus, when you leave a message for your friend that you would be meeting him at a particular place and time, you have the intention of asking him to wait for you and also expect him to wait for you or call you back to tell you whether it is possible or not. The degree of expectation varies.

The advertiser, for example, cannot be certain that everybody who reads his advertisement will buy his product. But when a boss sends a message to a subordinate asking him to wait for him, his expectation is more. Thus the degree of certainty is decided by intention and expectation. And even if the intentions are strong, and the expectation is low, the communication may not take place. On the other hand, if both are strong, communication will take place.

Thus, whether communication occurs or not is decided by the strength of intention and the certainty of expectation. We may say that communication arises whenever there is an intention or need. Of course, factors like availability of means also decide whether communication will take place or not.

Communication involves symbols and signs. Thus, every communication involves words, gestures, movements, etc. At the human level, communication is to a large extent verbal or involves words, numbers, symbols, etc.

This type of communication involving language or related symbols is known as verbal communication. But a large part of our communication also uses non-verbal symbols like gestures, movements, lights, sounds, etc.

The traffic signal is a clear example of non-verbal communication using light symbols. The horn of an automobile behind you is an example of a non-verbal communication with a sound symbol where the driver behind intends to overtake and expects you to give him the side clearance.

Gestures are also commonly employed as in the case of the traffic constable who gestures with his hand to the vehicles coming from a particular direction to stop or move. Similarly, you are sitting in a class and your friend standing outside is asking you to come out with a gesture and you ask the friend to wait for sometime with a gesture. The umpire on the cricket field raises his finger to communicate to the batsman i.e. out, and expects him to leave. Touch is also a means of communication.

If you are sleeping in the classroom and the teacher is about to notice the same, your friend touches you and you get up. You touch or fondle a little child or a pet to show your affection. In lower organisms, even smell is used as a communication. Thus we see that the communication can make use of any sensory modality, visual, auditory, touch and smell and can involve words, sounds, figures, lights, signals, gestures, etc.

Non-Verbal Communication and Body Language:

Though verbal language is our major medium of communication, there are other forms of communication and also that, any speech is not a piece of communication. Further, in many situations we speak not only with our mouths, or words but also through our body movements, expressions of the eye, posture, etc. A speaker uses a lot of gestures, modulations of voice, movements like bending, pacing up and down and does many other things to make the communication more effective.

In recent years, there have been a lot of research studies trying to understand the role of non-verbal communication including body movement, expressions, etc. on the effectiveness of communication. Such movements, expressions, gestures, etc. have all come to be known together as ‘body language’.

The study of the role of gestures, and body movements in the process of communication has resulted in the emergence of a specialised field of study called ‘kinesis’. Attempts have been made to prepare a dictionary giving a list of body movements and the meaning they generally convey.

An American anthropologist, B.T. Hall based on a very careful study of postures, degree of bending, angle of vision, etc. employed by people of different cultures, has argued for a discipline of study called proxemics which is interested in the study of how people use timing, body posture, and distance to make the communication effective.

Body language is widely employed by lower organisms and it is also used more extensively in simple human societies where verbal language has not developed to a very high degree. People employ body language very often not as a part of conscious effort. This just flows as a supplement to reinforce and strengthen the verbal communication. However, today body communication experts are attempting to train people to use body language selectively and more effectively. In fact, dance is a learnt and organised form of body language.

Non-verbal or body language communication has been evident in arts like dance, sculpture, music, etc. from ancient times. But the disciplines which study its status as a means of communication today are linguistics, anthropology, history, clinical psychology, etc.

Some of the scientists of these disciplines brought together a long list of expressive movements in the form of a dictionary, thus, trying to associate specific meanings, motives, etc., which underline them. Some of these movements are blinking, fingering the nose, crossing the finger, finger or knuckle cracking, loosening the collar, shrugging the shoulders, shaking a leg or legs, etc. However, this type of research has a long way to go.

Psychoanalytic literature, beginning with the writings of Freud, contains many explanations of the relationship between expressive movement or gesture and an unconscious motive. For instance, according to them, blinking the eyelids may indicate a desire to conceal something or the desire to hide from others. Dittmann studied pattern of movements composed of interaction between head, hands and legs for five different moods.

The frequency of movement within each of the body segments was arrived at from motion pictures of a patient during psychotherapy. The moods were judged in accordance with what the patient was expressing verbally. It was found that anger correlated with increased movements of the head and legs, with the hands remaining inactive while a depressed mood correlated with increased leg motion, both head and hands being inactive.

Wilhelm Reich, a leading psychoanalyst, after years of working as a therapist, began to notice that people’s facial expressions, gestures, posture- their body language -often told him more about their feelings than their words. Shaking a leg while talking about one’s wife’s temper tantrums, a drooping mouth when talking about a dead child, blinking frequently and closing eyes for a longer duration, holding the lips tight when talking about sex, etc. – all these movements were extremely revealing.

Pursuing this observation, Reich began to see muscle tension as the bodily equivalent of psychological blocks and defences. Tension protects a person from threats and the dangers he does not think about consciously. People hold their breath, stiffen their arms, tense their necks and shoulder muscles when they are on the defensive.

Rigidity not only protects the person from external threats but also prevents the free flow of emotions. Reich began looking for a way to relieve these tensions. Ida Rolf, who was trained as a bio-chemist, arrived at much the same conclusion through her work in physiology.

When a person is injured, the muscles in the area tighten to compensate for the injury. Often compensation becomes habitual and persists long after the injury has healed, i.e. the tightened muscles lose flexibility. Perhaps the body reacts to emotional traumas in the same way it reacts to physical traumas. Ida Rolf began to look for a way of restoring ‘structural integration’.

Both Reich and Rolf found, to their surprise, that when they treated knotted muscles with massage, clients invariably became intensely emotional. Fears, traumas, old anger and old pain stays ‘locked in their muscles’. For many people, physical therapy seemed to promote much deeper emotional release than verbal expression which is the essence of psychoanalytic therapy.

Interest in this approach seems to be growing day by day, but it needs to go a very long way before it can shake, let alone topple, the concept of ‘verbal expression’ as an ‘exclusive emotional releaser’.

Effectiveness of Communication:

Communication is normally initiated by some individual or a group with the aim or intention of influencing the behaviour of somebody else by sending a message through a channel or a medium. It was further noted that communication plays a very crucial role in our lives.

Of course, there are instances where people get influenced by communication not specifically directed towards them, but overheard by them. Similarly, there are also instances where a communication intended to influence some particular person or persons, influences people who are not intended to be influenced. By and large every communication has an intention of influencing the ideas and behaviour of some specific set of people.

This intention can be achieved only if the process of communication takes care of certain requirements. A communication which is able to influence people in the intended manner is said to be effective. Of course, communications vary in degree of effectiveness. Some communications are more effective than others that too for sometime and not always.

The effectiveness of a communication varies depending on a number of factors. These factors have been studied extensively and certain findings have emerged which have enabled people, particularly in organisations to make communication more effective.

In every communication there is a source, a person or persons who initiate the communication, a channel like a letter or a telephonic message or signal, etc., a message which is the essence which conveys to the other person what is to be done and a receiver or audience, a person or group of persons to whom the message is directed and who are intended to be influenced. Source, channel, message and the receiver are the four important components of a communication process and all of them are important in deciding how far a particular communication is effective.

We may briefly examine how these four components can be carefully planned and built into a communication process so that the communication can achieve what it intends, to a large degree. A company may become more effective in making the people buy its products, and a political leader may influence people to vote for his party; all these can be achieved better by designing the process of communication in an effective manner.

1. Source Characteristics:

It has been found that a number of characteristics of the source contribute to the effectiveness of the communication. One such factor is credibility. Credibility refers to the perceived importance of the person. Thus, when the Prime Minister or any other highly placed person makes an appeal, people respond.

This is because the person is accepted as genuine and sincere and also capable of carrying out what he says he can do. Thus, when an expert on a subject gives some new information we accept it. When a highly qualified doctor prescribes a treatment, the patient accepts it.

We accept the authority, legitimacy, sincerity and competence of the person. In an experiment students were shown a passage of poetry and asked them to rate the same. Two groups were involved. One group was told that the poem was written by some unknown person and the other group was told that it was written by a great poet.

The second group rated the poem as of a much higher quality. But a question has been raised as to whether this credibility is very specific or general. For example, if we attribute an article on economics to a leading poet, will this have an effect on the rating of the article? On this question, research studies have brought out contradictory findings.

Some studies show that the credibility factor is specific and that an article on economics will not be rated higher if it is attributed to a poet or a film star whose credibility may be high in influencing us to buy a hair cream.

However, there are studies, which argue that there is a general effect of credibility and people will accept a film star’s advice, even on whether India should manufacture nuclear weapons, or whether the constitution should be amended to declare film stars as super citizens.

Closely related to credibility is trustworthiness. A person may be an expert. But if earlier communications from the person were found to be unrealistic and misleading, then there may be a lack of trustworthiness and this may counteract against the factor of credibility.

Thus, if a person who is perceived as corrupt tries to influence the moral behaviour of people or asks them to contribute to a welfare programme, the effect may not be much, even though he may be perceived as competent or having a position. Other things being equal, if a source is perceived as a person who can reward or punish, this may have an effect on the effectiveness of the communication.

Yet, another factor appears to be the factor of similarity between the person who sends the communication, the source, and the receiver. Thus young people are generally more influenced by sources which are similar in educational background, age, background and status. Thus, it has been shown that characteristics relating to the sources do have a crucial influence on the effectiveness of the communication.

2. Channel Characteristics :

Channel is the medium by which the message is passed and presented. The channel may be direct and personal or through media like telephone, radio, newspaper, etc. The choice of the channel or medium depends on a number of factors like the nature of message, its coverage, importance, whether it is private, the size of the audience, their characteristics, etc.

Research studies have shown that direct communication is more effective especially as it permits use of body language like the expressions of the eyes, posture, etc. In terms of distance, a distance of about four meters between the source and the receiver has been found to be effective. Here again a number of factors have to be taken into account. For example, in a classroom a teacher cannot maintain a distance of four meters from all students. Nor is it possible in any direct audience situation.

One issue which has been investigated in more detail and depth relates to the question whether films or audio-visual aids are always more effective. Some studies have shown that films are more effective in communicating factual information and sometimes also in bringing about attitudinal changes, but there have been other studies which have shown that if the receiver is more educated and mature, printed communication is more effective.

The fact appears to be that effectiveness of a channel or medium seems to depend upon a number of factors like the nature and size of the audience, the nature of the message, the time available, the urgency of the message, etc.

3. Message:

The message is the core component of any communication. If there is no message, there is no communication, even though people may be talking. Some studies have attempted to study some of the necessary characteristics that may contribute to more effective communication. One important characteristic is known as loading which refers to the amount of information in that communication.

For example, if a boss wants to ask one of his own subordinates to go and meet and discuss a particular issue with somebody, he may simply say “regarding the matter, please meet Mr. A. at 3.30 p.m. today and talk to him”.

This is simple, brief and direct but adequate. If he says “I was with Mr. A yesterday and we had dinner. While talking to him I found that he has lot of experience in matters related to the issue which we discussed two days ago. You try to meet him and see if he can help us.”

Here we can see that the amount of unnecessary information is much more than what is necessary for the young person to act and it is possible that the message is too elaborate and confusing and the receiver misses the essential part. Such a lengthy communication with too much of unnecessary details is said to be overloaded.

On the other hand the boss may tell the young person, “meet Mr. A, and I want to have a discussion with him”. This is certainly brief but not very clear to the person who is expected to discuss with Mr. A. He is not sure about what to discuss with A, where and when. Such communications will create a need for a series of further communications on various aspects.

This is an example of what is called communication under-loading. The message should be optimally loaded while clearly communicating whatever information the receiver needs to carry out the instruction contained in the message. Thus, ‘loading’ is found to be a very important characteristic.

Messages may be of different types. Some of them may be a ‘one-way matter’. The source may expect the receiver to do something only once, but there could also be a message where a choice of action or response becomes necessary among different alternatives. This is very true of communication relating to work organizations.

It is very common that a particular person is involved in a number of transactions which are interrelated. The boss may find it necessary to send a message to him to take a particular action on a particular issue or matter. It is also possible that sometimes there are conditional messages.

For example, the boss may instruct the receiver as follows “meet Mr. A and find out what is happening. If there is some problem, ask him to talk to me and if he is not there meet Mr. R”. In such instances, it becomes difficult or even impossible for the respondent to get the message clearly unless the message is con-texted properly by clearly giving the necessary background and details.

Very often an organisation may be involved in a number of transactions involving the same client or party. So unless the background relating to a particular transaction on which action is to be taken is made clear, there may be a delay or even a wrong action at the end of the receiver.

This involves not only clarity of what to do, but also on what matter the action is to be taken. The message must provide the necessary details for the receiver to clearly identify the concerned issue. We may call this factor as “contesting or embedding”. Yet another characteristic refers to explicitness or implicitness or we may even call them degrees of explicitness.

Suppose a client is filing a legal case and his lawyer after studying all the details, comes to the conclusion that there is very little chance for the client to win the case. He may convey this directly to him and straightaway advise him to withdraw his case and arrive at a compromise. This will be an example of explicit communication.

On the other hand, the lawyer may explain to him all the details and also instances of similar cases he has handled in the past and leave the client to arrive at his own decision. This is an instance of implicit communication. Here again in-spite of a number of studies, no definite conclusion appears to be available.

Some studies by Hovland and Mandel on influencing American public opinion on the need for devaluing the dollar found that presenting an explicit conclusion was found to be more effective, but equally strong is the evidence in support of the strategy, where the message is presented without an explicit conclusion leaving it to the receiver to arrive at the conclusion. A classic example of this latter type is the oration of Mark Anthony on the death of Caesar where without explicitly inciting the people to revolt, he succeeded in making them do it.

Another message characteristic that has been investigated is with regard to the couching of the message in emotional appeals, emotional overtones and invoking reactions like love, loyalty, patriotism as part of the message. There are a number of studies on employing fear as an overtone. Extreme fear appears to have been occasionally found to be effective, but not always.

According to Janis effectiveness of fear appears to be associated with a number of factors. Appeals for dental care and hygiene were found to influence attitudes and behaviour relating to dental hygiene in inverse proportion to the degree of fear. This was shown by Janis and Fish back who found that the more intense the fear appeals were the less was the effectiveness.

One the other hand, association of moderate fear appears to be more effective. On the other hand studies by Levianthal and Nice and Singer on appeals in connection with traffic safety rules and traffic signal observance, showed that intensity of fear appeals had a greater effect.

By and large it appears fair to conclude that on the whole moderate fear appeals have a greater effect on more people, than extremely high fear or extremely low fear appeals Yet another finding was that messages for change of attitudes along with fear appeals were more effective when the message in the communication suggested ways to overcome the fearful situation.

Other aspects of the message including length, dramatization, medium, etc. have also been studied from the point of view of effectiveness in .bringing about changes in attitudes. The factors of primacy and recency, whether a communication received earlier or more recently is more effective has also been researched upon and the findings are far from conclusive let alone unanimous.

The contribution of each of the factors seems to depend on many other factors like nature of the content, demographic background of the audience, the perceived importance and even personality factors of the receiver. However, these studies have certainly exploded some myths like the universal effectiveness of emotional appeals, primacy, etc.

4. Receiver:

The receiver is the ultimate user of any type of communication. Communications are generally directed towards influencing the receiver, his opinions, attitudes, behaviour, etc. All receivers are not similar. There are group differences and individual differences. The susceptibility of the receiver to the influence of communications is called persuasibility which indicates the proneness of an individual to change in response to a communication.

Sensing and Brehm based on a series of studies have argued that after a certain stage, there emerges a condition which may be called ‘reactance’ marked by resistance to succumb to persuasion. This reactance can vary from simple indifference to positive hostility. This is a very important point for those who believe that mere volume and intensity of persuasive appeals can persuade anyone and everyone.

Educated and intelligent receivers are more difficult to persuade through emotional appeals. Some studies have shown that personality factors like high neuroticism make people less responsive.

On the basis of a series of studies Janis found that people who are either over assertive or very submissive, and who are more inner directed are more difficult to persuade. On the other hand, those who are moderately aggressive and not inner directed, less intelligent, etc., are more easily persuaded. People with more imagination have been found to be more susceptible.

From the point of view of the source initiating communication, it is necessary to make sure that the receiver attends and receives the communication, comprehends it and understands what he or she is supposed to do. The communication should be clear, brief, yet adequate and above all, it should be able to hold the interest of the receiver and provide the necessary directions and information for action.

If this is not done, the message may not have the intended effects. If such messages are repeated, the consequence may be the emergence of general apathy or even resistance or reactance. It is also necessary to develop what may be called a communicating culture where people get accustomed to receiving and sending communications.

This is particularly true in instances where the target audience involves groups of people, continuous communication and who differ in many respects. In most instances of communication, particularly in organizations, the source may send across a communication and expect a return communication.

This is particularly true of work situations and organisations where reciprocal and even multilateral communications are involved. Choosing the appropriate time for communication is an important factor. If an important communication is sent to a large number of people towards the end of the day when they are tired, the message may not register on many people.

A common occurrence found in Indian organisations particularly government organisations is that communications are often sent to people who are not at all concerned. If such irrelevant communications are frequently sent, then even a relevant subsequent communication is likely to be ignored. For instance, governments letters are very long and the real message comes at the end, if at all there is one.

5. Feedback:

How does one come to know that one’s communication has been effective and has achieved the desired purpose? As may be evident, the effectiveness of communication depends on a number of factors. Further the degree of effectiveness varies from time to time and situation to situation.

An important point is that on most occasions, there is a scope for improving the effectiveness of communication particularly in organisations. This depends on the existence of a system to asses the degree of effectiveness of the communication process and making attempts to improve the communication.

A basic requirement here is the need to establish a system of feedback on the responses and reactions of the receivers on various aspects of the communication processes, the message, the channel, the clarity or overloading or under-loading, etc.

In organisations where there is a continuous process of communication it becomes absolutely essential to provide for a system of feedback at regular intervals. Similarly, whenever a new process of communication is to be initiated, it is better to test the same on an experimental scale and get the feedback.

The feedback may be obtained directly from the receiver or indirectly through others who are in a position to observe the receiver’s behaviour. Sometimes feedback may not be verbal and may be non­verbal. Organisations should have a system whereby as complete a feedback as possible is obtained.

6. Boomerang Effects :

Researchers on communication effectiveness have come across an interesting phenomenon called boomerang effect. It has been noticed that very often communication results in an effect which is exactly antithetical to the intended effect. This has been named the boomerang effect.

One factor which appears to be associated with this is the occurrence of a direct interaction or confrontation with a person towards whom the receive has a negative attitude. One investigation to identify this type of effect was that of Mansion. For example, if an individual “A” is trying to persuade a group of people to change their attitude or behaviour, and if another person “B” who is unpopular with the group happens to be there, then boomerang effect may occur.

Similarly, when attempts are made to change the attitudes of people who have strong negative attitudes in a sudden manner, we may witness the emergence of boomerang effect leading to hostility and total rejection of not only their message but even the source.

7. Sleeper Effect :

Sleeper effect is said to occur when the effect of the process of communication is not evident for a long time and then suddenly becomes evident. According to Hove land this happens when comprehension and assimilation of a message takes a long time, and depends on a process of consolidation which is time-consuming. This possibility is very likely where the communication is long and complex.

The sleeper effect appears to be more likely when an individual has a base of earlier attitudes which are fairly strong and have to be reviewed in the light of the communication that has been presented. But sleeper effect has not been found to occur very frequently.

Barriers to Communication:

Why is it that communication is effective on certain occasions and not on others? There are also certain other factors which influence the effectiveness of communication. One important factor is what is known as noise. While physical noise either at the source or at the receiver’s end, certainly can affect the effectiveness of communication, the term ‘noise’ means any irrelevant stimulation present at the same time or at the time of initiation of or receiving the communication.

Thus, if somebody conveys a message to you on the telephone, while you are busy studying or discussing something important with your friends, you are in a hurry and do not wait to understand the telephonic message clearly. Noise here means anything that does not permit you to attend to and listen to the message with full concentration and understand it completely and clearly, because at the moment you are engaged in some activity which is more important.

It may be seen here that it is not merely the factor of being physically engaged in some other activity, but even the psychological factor of ‘perceived importance’ and ‘interest’ play a crucial role. Apart from this, one may mention a factor known as “frame of reference”.

The source or the initiator may ask the receiver to do something or not to do something which according to the source may be important. But the receiver may not perceive this as important. Discrepancies in any of these between the source and the receiver may make the communication ineffective.

At the end of our discussion, perhaps the reader is in a position to appreciate the complexity of the process of communication and the various factors which influence the effectiveness of communication. But in-spite of all these, people communicate with each other across distances and on many matters. It is impossible to think of a world where people do not communicate.

This is an indication of importance of communication in our lives. One cannot imagine how people can live and live together, if communication processes are not so robust and function in-spite of the fact that many factors are involved in it. It is this ability to communicate which has made it possible for human beings to control and master the environment. The reader may wonder, why is communication so important!

It is important because communication serves many functions. Some of these are:

1. It helps us to express our ideas, feelings, reactions, hopes, etc. Pure verbal language may not serve this purpose in all situations of life. For example, children may not have acquired vocabulary to express their feelings and express through body language. In fact, the pet dog communicates its feelings very effectively.

2. To transmit or convey information to others.

3. To change the attitudes, behaviours and actions of others, and respond or reciprocate in such a way as to achieve something or accomplish something, reach a goal or target.

4. To establish bonds, relationship with others in terms of authority, control, camaraderie, etc.

5. To establish order and predictability in behaviour where a number of people are involved as in the case of organisations.

6. To hold together, a society, a group, or organization’s culture and values which are essential to provide meaning and usefulness to actions of people. Communication, therefore, is another most important function which differentiates living from the non-living and human from sub-human.

Today we know that very crucial developments in science and technology are taking place in the field of communication and the importance of such developments is very obvious. If one should think of any single distinct characteristic of contemporary human society, certainly it is communication. Modern society is a communicating society, though it may not be rational as Aristotle thought or pleasure-seeking as other philosophers thought.

An important development these days is the rapid advances in communication technology. The information or message can be passed on in no time. In fact, the occurrence of event and its awareness are almost simultaneous. Further today one often finds more emphasis on communication.

A few years ago one could not have thought of a teleconference or a continuous chat with an astronaut who is orbiting in the outer space. Communication, is probably the lifeline of society. This is now more true of modern society which is increasingly becoming an information based society.

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In the rapidly evolving landscape of Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC), effective communication between humans and robots is crucial for complex task execution. Traditional request-response systems often lack naturalness and may hinder efficiency. This study emphasizes the importance of adopting human-like communication interactions to enable fluent vocal communication between human operators and robots simulating a collaborative human-robot industrial assembly. We propose a novel approach that employs human-like interactions through natural dialogue, enabling human operators to engage in vocal conversations with robots. Through a comparative experiment, we demonstrate the efficacy of our approach in enhancing task performance and collaboration efficiency. The robot's ability to engage in meaningful vocal conversations enables it to seek clarification, provide status updates, and ask for assistance when required, leading to improved coordination and a smoother workflow. The results indicate that the adoption of human-like conversational interactions positively influences the human-robot collaborative dynamic. Human operators find it easier to convey complex instructions and preferences, resulting in a more productive and satisfying collaboration experience.

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Impact of Technology on Communication Essay

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Introduction

Advancement of technology in communication, media technology and online communication, the impacts of mobile phone on communication, reference list.

The realm of technology is ever-changing. New advances in applied science have forever transformed the way people interact. Exploring the impact of technology on communication and debating whether people connect with others differently seems to be the topic of the day.

Technology has allowed people to keep in touch no matter the distance. One is able to communicate 24 hours around the clock, seven days a week, 365 days on an interpersonal level.

What are the real impacts of technology on communication? How do electronics mediate and change the ways in which humans interact? How has the emergence of the Internet, mobile phones, and social networks affected society and businesses?

In order to reveal the importance of technology in communication, the essay tries to find answers to these questions. It explores how everything has changed over the years and discusses the connection between technology and communication.

To begin this examination and find answers to these questions, we begin by defining media and communication and outlining the stages of technological advancement from old age to the present day in the field of communication. The paper will highlight the use of the Internet, newspapers, radio, and other media, but it mostly dwells on the use of mobile telephony.

Communication is “the imparting or exchange of information by speaking, writing or using some other medium” (Daniel & Rod, 2011). On the other hand, media is defined as “the main means of mass communication (television, radio, and newspapers) regarded collectively.”

Technology has changed everything in the modern society. The way we communicate has been revolutionized by the advancement of new innovations in the telecommunication sector. Connecting with other people with ease is more feasible in today’s world, and this is due to speed.

Several centuries ago, books and newspapers reigned as the only choice of communication. Then later, innovators brought the radio and television before innovation was taken a notch higher with the coming of the personal computer (Johnson, 1997, p.3).

With every new innovation, the reliance on books and newspapers as the mass medium of communication continued to reduce. With time, human culture has come to understand the power and the mechanisms involved in technology and invention. In today’s world, information has permeated the cycles of change and development.

The world today, past and present, can be studied at ease with the growing information technology. Technology has advanced with sheer velocity allowing different media to shape our thinking and habits. The people who were born during the television era thought that it was the climax of innovation, but they suddenly found themselves acclimating to a new medium, the World Wide Web.

Every time a new medium rolls out, the perceptions towards the previous media you were used to change (Johnson, 1997 p5). Technology proved to be powerful in the sense that no human being can predict what will change and what won’t with certainty.

The irony of it all is the fact that the influence of technology extends beyond generations to come. It is with no doubt that technology has changed the lives of human beings; information and entertainment are being received in a more convenient way.

The innovation of having a conversation using a device called the telephone changed everything in communication. This became magical, and one couldn’t believe such innovation would exist (Tofts, 1997, p.40).

With the emergence of new media technologies, consumers have been empowered to ‘filter’ the information they want to receive. This allows them to have a choice of which news to watch or what information to listen to (Palmer, 2003, p.161).

Media consumption has been made an engaging experience with marketers studying the preferences of the consumers in order to reflect broader social changes in society. In today’s world, the computer is seen as a multi-purpose machine with work and leisure functions, therefore, creating more value.

The rise of the Internet has also made it possible to have virtual offices where the user can work from home or any convenient location. The flow of information from different media has greatly changed the social structures of society at different levels (Barry, 1999).

Digital media has enabled news and event to be channeled in real-time. The combination of the Internet and commerce has given birth to e-commerce sites providing huge potential for marketers to reach out to virtual communities.

In the world today, there are numerous media screens within our surroundings. This ranges from the television sets in our houses, computer monitors at the office, mobile phones and MP3 players in our pockets and handbag.

Even when shopping or waiting to board a plane, you’re most probably staring at screens with entertainment media (Soukup, 2008, p.5). Heavy marketing has been adopted by producers of mobile technologies targeting consumers who possess mobile phones with picture and video capacity (Goggin, 2006, p.170).

Media texts producers have termed mobile media as a “third screen,” a device that consumers carry around with much ease. Unlike television screens, broader communication networks have been integrated into personal computers and mobile phones (Goggin, 2006, p.9).

Train, buses, and airplanes have been dominated by mobile screens providing passengers with entertainment as well as other media content, especially advertisements (Caron & Carona, 2007, p.17). With a lot of commercial media content, the preferences of people change in their everyday lives.

The world of popular media has become chaotic, with hundreds of television channels to choose from, thousands of songs ready for download, and not forgetting millions of web pages to surf.

The emergence of social media like Facebook and Twitter has enabled people to manage interactions and relationships with many friends. Technologies have impacted interpersonal communication enabling people to interact more often than before.

In addition to reducing the distance between people, online communication with tools like Facebook and Twitter enables people to keep track of their contacts with friends and are more aware of the last time they interacted with them. Online communication now incorporates more than one mode of contact, including text, voice, and body language.

A mobile phone is a device that has always been seen as connecting people who are far apart, thus overcoming the geographical distance between them. The number of mobile phone users has continued to increase substantially. The mobile phone has been integrated as part of people’s lives in the sense that it’s available and easy to use, keeping us connected to our families, friends, and business people (Ling, 2004, p.21-24).

The how and when the way we use our mobile phones impacts our communication not only with those we’re communicating with but also with the people within our proximity. At this point, it is paramount to note the changes that have taken place and that have allowed the adoption of mobile phones. The tremendous proliferation of this device has drastically changed the traditional communication model.

Who are the users of mobile phones, and for what purposes do they use them? Has there been any change in the way mobile phone facilitates communication? How has the face to face interaction been affected by mobile calls? Has mobile communication enhanced relationships?

These are some of the questions that arise when we try to fathom the way communication has affected our personal and professional lives. There are sentiments that mobile phones have reduced humans to emotionless beings.

There is no doubt that the revolution brought about the use of mobile phones in the way we communicate. There have been different perceptions among individuals and social levels in society in regard to mobile usage.

When we had fixed telephone lines that were put in a booth, telephones were seen as business tools only and were placed in a fixed, quiet environment. There was restriction when it came to teenagers using these phones (Agar, 2003). The ‘birth’ of mobile phones brought changes, and phone calls became a habit to many irrespective of age or location.

Today, people can use mobile phones wherever they are in private or in public. People have been addicted to their mobile phones more than any other gadget known to man, with the device remaining on throughout. Its portability enables people to carry it wherever they go (Castells, 1996).

A personal virtual network has been created whereby users can be available at all times to communicate with friends, family, and colleagues. The geographical barrier has been destroyed, making people feel close to one another, and the face to face communication has been rendered rather less important with this mediated communication (Richard, 2004, p.22).

Meetings and briefings have become obsolete, with communication being mediated by a computer or a phone. Mobile SMS (short messaging service) service and the Internet has become the preferable communication channels for most teenagers and young people all over the world (Plant, 2000, p.23).

There are places where mobile phones have become taboo devices, places like churches and crucial corporate meetings. At such places, the mobile ring is seen as a nuisance. In other scenarios, it is seen as a destructive device by acting as a third party and especially for dating couples who want to have a private conversation.

Any phone ring is seen as an ‘intruder,’ and this harms the relationship between the partners (Plant, 2000, p.29). In his research, Plant observes that there are those people who use mobile as ’a means of managing privacy where calls are carefully selected’. He categorizes this group of people as ‘hedgehogs.’

The other category is those people who use mobile phones as the key central part of their life. They become so attached to the device and cannot do without it. Plant referred to this group as ‘fox.’ They are regular users who need to feel connected with their families and friend. Their life will be dreadful if they lack the device (2000, p.32).

Telephones have promoted the use of text messaging and modernization since it’s allowing people to communicate more both verbally and by texting in a more convenient and efficient way. SMS has made communication to be more immediate, and users can customize the message at ease with the various applications installed on their mobiles (Richard, 2004, p. 100).

The advanced phones have email support as well as multimedia messages making chatting become a lifestyle for many who conduct business and those initiating intimate communication. It has emerged that SMS has made people become more united.

Users have developed abbreviated messages, which are now universally accepted as an appropriate language. The initial purpose of the phone to make calls has even lost taste with many people, especially the young generation.

According to Reid &Reid, more than 85% of teenagers prefer texting to talking on their mobile usage (Reid & Reid, 2004, p.1). There is ease of communication when it comes to texting in the sense that some formalities are eliminated, making communication more personal.

Texting has helped introverts who may lack the skills to have phone conversations allowing them to express their true self to other people leading to greater understanding and stronger relationships (Reid & Reid, 2004, p.8).

The use of mobile technology has affected the personalities of people to a great extent. Today, more people are hiding their feelings and whereabouts behind mobile phones, and this has raised suspicions among families, friends, and couples.

People go through text messages of others just to find out more about the individual who might even have no clue about what is happening. Contrary to this, most people believe that mobile is so crucial in enhancing the relationship between people no matter the distance and that it bonds us together more than it separates us (Plant, 2000, p.58).

The usage of mobile phones by children and teenagers has changed the way parents bring up their kids. Parenting has really changed as parents try to increase their surveillance and monitor their children’s mobile usage.

Their concern is to know who communicates with their kind and the kind of conversations they normally have. They are worried about the kind of social network the children create in their contact lists.

With the emergence of virtual communities, the influence of mobile phones has spilled over and affects parenting in general. Nonetheless, the primary purpose of mobile phones to facilitate communication has not changed.

There is no doubt that technology has changed the way humans communicate. Great impacts can be seen in the way communication has changed the social structures of our society at all levels. Even in years to come, technology remains the driving force of the way people interact.

The advancement of technology ensures that communication is quicker and that more people remain connected. There has been an evolution in interpersonal skills with the advancement of technology, and users should always be keen on adapting to new ways of communication.

Technology has continually brought new methods of communication leading to the expansion of mediated communication. The reality of having one message shared across a huge audience (mass communication) is now with us. A situation where neither time nor geography can limit the accessibility of information.

We have seen the merging together of newspapers and books with computer technology so that the frequency and ease of reporting information and advertisements can be increased. The exposure of both individuals and society to mediated communication has therefore affected our daily lives, particularly in our culture and the way we communicate.

Agar, J., 2003. Constant Touch: A Global History of the Mobile Phone . Cambridge: Icon Books.

Barry, W., 1999. Networks in the Global Village . Boulder Colo: Westview Press.

Caron, A, & Caronia, L., 2007. Moving cultures: mobile communication in everyday life. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Castells, M., 1996. The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, Volume 1. The Rise of the Network Society . Oxford: Blackwell.

Daniel, C., & Rod, M., 2011.The Dictionary of Media and Communications . Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Goggin, G., 2006. Cell phone culture mobile technology in everyday life. New York: Routledge.

Palmer, D., 2003. The Paradox of User Control’. 5 th Annual Digital Arts and Culture Conference (Proceedings), pp.160-164.

Plant, S., 2000. On the Mobile: the effects of mobile telephones on social and individual life . Web.

Postman, N., 1992. Technopoly: The surrender of culture to technology . New York: Vintage Books.

Reid, D. J. & Reid F. J. M., 2004. Insights into the Social and Psychological Effects of SMS Text Messaging . Web.

Richard, L., 2004. The Mobile Connection: The Cell Phone’s Impact on Society . San Francisco Morgan: Kaufmann.

Soukup, C., 2008. ‘Magic Screens: Everyday Life in an Era of Ubiquitous and Mobile Media Screens’, presented at 94 th annual Convention . San Diego .

Stephen, J., 1997. Interface Culture: How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate . San Francisco: Basic Books.

Tofts, D., 1997. ‘ The technology within’ in memory trade: A Prehistory of Cyberculture, North Ryde: 21C Books.

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