Thinking of the pragmatic perspective believing communication is a patterned interaction makes sense to me. When someone walks in a person already there says hello, then the response could be hey how are you, and so on. This way of communication happens daily which creates a communication pattern. Each time someone new walks up the first words spoken are almost always hey how are you, or words with the same feeling. Greetings are made of patterns.
Communication being compared to playing a game also makes sense. Some games require more than ones person, just like communication. One person makes a move then the next person gets to go. In a conversation or communication through email, one person always starts off and when the time is right the other person will jump in with a comment or reply to the email.
It is different from a games because the games which go person A then person B then person A then person B are not the only games available. Sports do not follow this particular pattern, in water polo it is not one person shoots then we all wait our turn. We fight the whole game for the ball, if that were to be communication it would be considered as yelling or interrupting everyone. Not all games follow the neat pattern which is how communication can differ from games.
Hey!
ReplyDeleteI do agree with your post on the matter of comparing communication to a game; in a game there are a set number of players and rules involved to organize the activity. As with communication, there is a set group who contribute to the conversation, and each culture and situation begs a set of rules which should be followed. Often miscommunication arises from a dismissal or breaking of the communication “rules” which in most cases are assumed. Your example of water polo was a great comparison, since it does not have a specific pattern, I would argue, communication does not either. True we have a standard by which most communication is used, your example of the ordinary greeting, communication is inherently risky, as our text tells us, and the risk I believe comes from its unpredictable nature. We can never assume a response, even from some of our closest friends and family, therefore, just as games go, communication has rules, but rules can always be broken.
Thanks for sharing! Hope you have a great week!