Sunday, February 22, 2009

4th post for comms101 (mood: lost)

As i progress on a new post every week, I'm beginning to take a longer time each time i need to come up with a post entry. haha im actually quite affected now, due to many reasons. nvm i dun wish to elaborate anymore. enough of my ranting. So here comes the post for this week!

this past week, we studied abt interpersonal communication. interpersonal communications. in short, is simply the communications that take place between persons who have an established relationship, the people are in some way related. to me, interpersonal relationship is important yet profound. it requires certain skills (or maybe character?) to establish a long lasting relationship. ok. so for this entry, i will not be presenting a media source. if i do, i would only be forcing myself to do so. in this entry, i will talk about how i feel about the different stages of interpersonal relationships and what they mean to me.

Basically, the progression and development of a typical relationship come in 10 stages of 2 phases. initiation, experimenting, intensifying, integrating, bonding come under the "coming together" stage while the falling apart stage consists of differentiating, circumscribing, stagnating, avoiding, terminating. because of how optimistic a person i always am ( and also the time constraint), i will skip the falling apart stages and relate my personal experiences to the stages of coming together.

yes true, enough, the initiating stage can be very superficial and shallow to some people. reason being, this stage usually involves screening and filtering. it simply means that before someone enters into this stage, he decides whether he wants to initiate a relationship base on very superficial factors such as the looks, outfit, physique. All of these factors, in my opinion, are merely the packaging of someone, will and can be highly deceiving. personally, i will not penalise this sort of behavior as it is human nature after all that we judge a book by its cover. however i think it is wise to be able to separate your judgment from reality. someone who is good looking can be real nasty and vice versa. For myself, i tend to approach someone only after i get to know his or her behavior or character. in a way, yes, i am not impressed by someone because of his or her looks. afterall, nowadays, good looking people are everywhere on the streets.

yes. coming to the 2nd stage(experimenting stage), it involves the exchange of cultural, social and psychological information exchange within a group or between a pair. this is the stage where small talks are carried out and understanding start to build up. to me, it is the most crucial stage as it forms the impression of yourself in the person. yes, i believe most of you (at least for me) will agree that this stage can be rather awkward, probably due to the fear of making a fool of youself or showing the ugly side of yourself. strangely but truely, when nearing the transition of this stage to the next stage, we generally feel comfortable towards one another. anyone able to tell me the reason why?

the 3rd stage is the intensifying stage involves increasing the committment and awareness. physical contact will also start to come into the picture( not from my experience, the info is from the notes). personally, i feel that this is the stage where mutual feelings start to build, be it a BGR or just plain friendship. during this stage, it brings the concept of "you" and "me" into a category of "us". for me, it is a stage where i get to date someone, or going out with friends, in hope of getting to know the person better.

the 4th stage, is somehow similar to the intensifying stage, the only difference being that the former marks the completion of the latter. at the integrating stage, couples encompass their social networks and form a common social identity. couples will introduce themselves as partners instead of individuals.

eventually, every interpersonal relationship will come to the bonding stage. this is the last stage of the "coming together phase" where couples conduct significant rituals such as engagement, marriage, and then having a child. sadly but truly, this is the stage where obligations and commitments are formalize. generally, couples will feel tied down to a marriage as being together has become more of an obligation and responsibility instead of love. personally, i feel that this does not indicate the failure of a relationship. instead, i see it as a part and parcel of marriage. the success of a marriage is only possible when it is based on love, responsibility and obligations. what say u, people?

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Post Valentines day post (pun intended)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sygP0a9Zr5o


First and foremost, i hope that everyone had a romantic and fantastic Valentines day with your loved ones, be it with your friends, parents or lover. I happened to spend Valentines day out in town with a friend and what i saw simply amuses me. On that day itself, orchard was simply packed with couples that were specially dressed up for the occasion, exactly what was shown in the video. every couple, if not, almost all, had a bouquet of flowers in the girl's hands. What really amused me is the expression they had on their face. i could tell that having to carry a bouquet of flowers and shopping at the same time was more of a chore to the girls. Having to carry a bouquet of flowers means having to hold it at chest level throughout the date, and can be considered tiring for them. Some girls simply let or maybe, demanded that their boyfriends carry for them. What appeared ironic to me is that typically, girls like to receive flowers on a date no matter how inconvenient, impractical and expensive it may be. I do believe and hear of stories of girls actually kicking up a fuss over not receiving anything on a valentines day.To some, it may be seen that giving flowers symbolises the love of a guy to the girl. Yes, i couldnt agree more. However, in my own opinion, every single relationship is unique on its own and hard to establish. How much a guy loves a girl shouldnt be weighed against how much he spends on the girl. what i feel is that a relationship should be forged based on the amount of commitment, understanding, love, and faith that both parties put in the relationship. However, sadly to say, the phenomenon that is showing globally seems to imply that people tend to think that the values of gifts corresponds to the amount of love they have for each other. Take giving flowers for example, for most guys, including myself, should have already figured out how impractical, unwise, expensive buying flowers can be. Afterall, flowers wither after a few days yet they cost over a hundred bucks during valentines day season. For the guys, it is the trend and the pressure that leave them no choice but to succumb to the society's perceptions. As for the girls, they are generally made to think that presents symbolise how much the girl means to the guy. Sadly but truely, we ought to be able to have the courage to separate ourselves and not be influenced by common beliefs.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Comms Entry #2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHA0HRjDgc8&feature=related

Ok. Media itself, usually makes use of human perception in order to effectively influence and affect the target audience. Audience's perceptions, in my own opinion, can be very personal and easily swayed. In the video provided, it shows a hideous woman persuading its viewers to quit smoking. Although not much was said in the video, I truly believe that the objective of the video has been met, not because of how persuasive is the woman, but credit goes to the technique used to influence the viewers in the production of the video. The reason why this video is successful in conveying its message to its viewers is because of the after effects it has on them after watching it.

Youngsters usually have the perceptions that smoking portrays a "cool" and "hip" image on them as they failed to apprehend the consequences and damage which cigarettes can do to them. As much as how the government tries to discourage smoking, they usually fail to bring the point across to habitual or potential smokers. This is because no matter how persuasive is the language used, it hardly has the shocking effect to instantly convince them of the harmful effects of smoking. Therefore, in the past year, the government has come up with several advertisements and commercials which directly present to the public what smoking can do to your health and appearance. These kinds of advertisements make use of non- verbal communications to effectively convey their message across to the audience. It is a type of communication that occurs when a stimulus other than words creates meaning in the mind of the communicator. It is usually non linguistic, contains intentional symbolic behavior, is a right brain activity and consists of nonverbal behaviors intentionally sent and perceived, that people within a given group recognize as having a consensual meaning. The hideous look of the woman indirectly creates a fear to habitual smokers and warning to potential smokers to stay away from cigarettes so that they do not end up like the woman featured in the video. I feel that the government had successfully used the correct approach to convey what it wants to say to the public.

In conclusion, we have learnt that different types of communications should be adopted to suit different audiences and purpose in order to achieve a desired result. There is no " one size fits all" method where communication is involved.
So to those smokers out there, will you still continue to smoke when there is a high chance that u end up like her? God bless you and your lungs. =)