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Hello Class! Welcome to your lecture for Week 2 of COM 110,
Introduction to Human Communication.
Today we'll talk about the changing world, especially in regard to technology
that affects communication. It's important—especially those
among us who are younger—to understand how quickly all
of this has changed. For people who have witnessed it firsthand,
it has been lightening fast and even historically, historians
will tell you that this a time of unprecedented change.
Think of how long it took after the creation
of the world for someone to think of the wheel,
electricity, telephones. And then look at the rate
of change in the past 30 years. It's incredible.
I hope this discussion will give you a better understanding of how difficult
it may be for older people in your lives. And when you work with people
who are "technologically challenged," it may help you be more understanding.
Plus, I hope this discussion will help when you're trying to
communicate with an older audience.
So this week, we'll cover: I remember...,
A lot of this is what I remember but it really is just those changes
in communication technologies which have happened in your lifetime.
And we'll take a brief look into how things may look in the not-so-
distant future IF things continue to progress as quickly as they
have been over the past 30 years.
Intercultural communication. We can make some really stupid mistakes
sometimes when we think we are all operating from the same cultural backgrounds
and understandings. We'll talk about that.
Mediated communication vs. face-to-face.
This is a debate in academia
and, I'm sure, among students as well. Which method of communication (or
instruction) is best? Is it possible, even likely, that
some people actually communicate more effectively and more freely
when some technology mediates their communication?
Perils of the cyberworld. We're going
to go over, very quickly, some things you should consider when posting ANYTHING
on Facebook, photosharing sites, any social media
venue. I hope this is a quick reminder
and you know all of this already.
And why should we care?
There are good reasons why these topics are included in a basic communication
class for first year college students. So we'll discuss why
you should care.
At the risk of sounding like that old grandpa who always told stories about
how he used to have to walk ten miles to school in four feet of snow,
let's take a look at a picture very similar to the first computer my husband
ever brought home. Now this was not that long ago.
It had a nasty habit of freezing up and losing all the work I had spent hours on
but other than that, we were amazed with it.
I can remember vividly the first time I looked information
for a story I was writing on Jerry Punch,
you might know him from his days as a commentator for NASCAR. I was writing a story
on him and I couldn't believe I could actually
go up and find his bio information.
Alright, something else that's a little different. You might be interested to know that back in those days
the late 70's. it was illegal to have an answering machine.
which, of course would have included voice mail. It was
against the law to record people's voices without their permission.
We have come a long way baby. And, I am a video editor.
and back during that time, we were still editing
video in a linear fashion. When I was in college, we would lay down the shots
from one tape player to another. If you made a mistake
or wanted to change something, you either had to overlay what was already there
making sure you had it timed exactly correctly, or
OR start from the problem spot and over-edit.
None of this moving shots all around in a non-linear fashion as we have now.
have now.
All of this has happened in the past 30-40 years—since many of
your parents graduated from college and many of them are still pretty
young, right?
The pace of change has been astounding.
Part of the reason why this matters to you today, is because: all
of this change, especially the change which has occurred with the Internet, and social
media and electronics such as smart phones and iPads
and hot spots at every coffee shop and McDonald's, means the boundaries
of our communities have been blown wide open.
Before all of this change, most of us communicated with people we had grown up with,
who were very similar to us, and looked a lot like us.
Now, you can chat with or receive news reports from anyone
in the world, even tweets from the middle of a war zone.
This means we are potentially communicating across cultures,
national boundaries, across age groups. It's
exciting—but it can be dangerous. We'll talk
about the dangerous part later, but let's watch this little video to get a glimpse
of the kind of communicating we may be doing in the very near future.
This is pretty cool.
TITLE: Microsoft: The future of tech in 2019
A child draws a heart on a window-like screen. Another child is on the other side of the glass.
We see that the glass connects two classrooms, one American and one in India.
They are talking and the screen automatically prints the English version AND translates
They continue "talking" and draw pictures for each other.
A picture of a dog begins to move and chases a ball that the little boy has just drawn.
Nearby, a girl from India is teaching a girl from America to write in her language.
The word is "water."
An illustration of "water" automatically appears. It is a cloud with rain drops coming down from it.
A mother sitting on a plane can see the pictures her child is drawing.
She minimizes the screen to look at other things.
She sees a menu on the screen, which resembles a flat place mat.
She manipulates and selects features by touching the screen.
She views her flight information.
Now she pulls out a credit card sized screen.
It is a little computer screen that she can touch to see different information.
She smiles. END OF VIDEO.
Pretty cool stuff. You saw some great examples in that video of
intercultural communications almost literally face-to-face via
technology. You can see that even the lines between computer mediated
and face-to-face communication are beginning to blur and will continue
in that trend. Remember that intercultural may mean much
more than simply Americans talking to Chinese or people from India.
When people say culture,
what do we mean? Here's a good definition from your textbook:
"The language, values, beliefs, traditions, and customs
people share and learn."
Think about the subcultures
that exist all around us. So, we have the larger
culture, the American culture. But what about within that? The subcultures.
If we find ourselves in a different culture, it's possible we won't even
understand what people around us are talking about. Think differences in
age, religion—hey, I worked with the NC Baptists for years and
believe me they have a language and terminology of their own,
How about bikers or gamers or techies? They all
have their own acronyms and terms they all understand.
We may not. That's not even taking into consideration race
or ethnicity and language, which we traditionally consider to be
different cultures
Co-cultures. Many of us exist in more
more than one culture. That means we might live in two or more of
these subcultures at one time. Now, why is this important?
You need to understand that just because you live in a culture where you all
accept the same ideas as truths and it's acceptable to say certain things,
that this may NOT be the case in other contexts.
I don't know how many times I've seen public figures get themselves into major trouble
because they say something they've said for years in front of
friendly audiences, but then they say it in a different place and immediately
it becomes a scandal.
One of the most recent example that comes to mind is with Paula Deen, the Southern
Southern cooking show host. She freely and nonchalantly admitted
she had used the N-word in the past. She said she doesn't use it
any longer and that she thinks it's a derogatory word that she and her
family no longer use. She, obviously, did not anticipate that this
admission would nearly topple her little empire.
People started dropping her immediately from advertising.
You might remember a lawmaker, Todd Akin, who said
that women who are *** cannot get pregnant, that their bodies
shut down that capability during a ***. Ludicrous statement
that was a firestorm for weeks during his campaign.
How about Mitt Romney who said he wasn't going to worry about
the 47% of Americans who, he supposed, would support his opponent
He was speaking to what he
thought was a friendly audience but he didn't realize
amazingly, that there might be somebody in that crowd, unfriendly,
and videotaping. These are all examples of statements that people make
in their own groups or cultures. They play fine there. They might even get
nods of approval. But they don't play well outside of that culture.
So when we start thinking globally and across cultures, when we stop
to think how this is going to sound to people outside of our little
subculture, we are less likely to say things that sound really
stupid and uninformed. That's not to say you don't
ever say controversial or shocking things. Right? We don't need a bunch of wimps
running around afraid we're ever going to offend anybody, but
It's only to say that you try to understand the impact these words will
have when you make them. Understand what's at stake before you speak.
Real quickly. We're not going to go over everything in Chapter 2. I've said that
before. You do need to read your book.
Your book has some good sections on Cultural Values and Norms.
Sometimes communicating between cultures has to do with understanding what
not to say. Some cultures are less forthright with their opinions.
They might value more nuance in language.
Some cultures are more concerned with putting the benefits of the community
over themselves. Individualism versus collectivism.
Americans then, may offend people from these cultures
because we are so individualistic in our thinking. If you're not aware of
these differences, you might be totally confused as to why your conversation falls
flat or you fail at convincing someone of a point that seems
completely logical to you. And developing
intercultural communication competence. Those of you who live
in multi-cultural areas, you are so fortunate to have the world
coming right to your doorstep. This is a great opportunity to develop
some understanding of how to communicate cross-culturally, which will become
more and more important throughout your lifetime. This is going
be part of your discussion board this week. You'll need to find someone from a different
culture—and by this I specifically mean someone who is from a different
country and whose primary language is not English, so don't go
finding a biker or a techie. We want someone from a
a different language speaking culture.
and talk to them. Look for more details in your discussion board assignment.
OK. So let's talk about mediated vs. face-to-face
communication. Mediated is any time communication
happens through some media, like email,
or Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, texting, ichatting, you name it.
Face-to-face is good ole fashioned sitting and talking.
This includes public speaking and group discussions, Board room chats.
That kind of thing.
Synchronous is a key word here. That means it happens
in real time.
Face-to-face is definitely synchronous. You talk, I listen
at the exact same time. I answer immediately.
Asynchronous is like email. You send a message and at some
point, they answer you back. It's not usually instantaneous.
What's skyping or video chat?
Is that mediated or face-to-face. It's certainly synchronous.
But is it mediated or face-to-face?
The lines are getting blurry.
How about ichatting or text messaging? Is that synchronous or asynchronous?
It depends, right? Most people would say
that's asynchronous because you have time to formulate and edit your answer,
even if it's only a few seconds, but it certainly
approaches a real time conversation sometimes, doesn't it?
Permanence is another key word. What's more permanent
and replicable. When you sit down and talk to someone
or call them on the phone, what's the chance your exact words will last
forever and be sent around to everyone you know and don't know.
Not near as good a chance as when you put it on
Facebook, or tweet it, or post it on Instagram.
Even ichat is risky. Someone could take a screen grab of
your conversation and put it on Facebook. Let's talk a little bit more about this.
Mediated vs. face-to-face communication. Which is better?
Is on line learning better
or classes where you show up and sit in a chair in a
classroom? Which is better?
A good next question might be "better for what?"
Better for making connections and forming community in a class?
Better for connecting with fellow students or the teacher? Better for bearing
your soul on discussion questions? It really depends on
what you're trying to measure, as to which is better.
And finally, Better for whom? Some people
love face-to-face class discussions. Their minds work well
that way and they love the give and take and people stepping on each other's
words and they pull energy from other people in a conversation. They
love the messiness of a spirited class discussion. I'm one of those.
Others, not so much. Others are
more reserved. They like to reflect before they give input.
By the time they get their thoughts together in a classroom discussion, the conversation
has shifted to something new.
They have interesting things to say, but they don't ever get to say them.
These are the people who might thrive in an on line setting.
And finally, the social media danger zone.
I hope, by this time in your life, that you understand how important it is
to be careful about the image and reputation you are creating on line.
You may think those pictures of you partying and acting stupid and wearing less
than you should in public, are all funny now. But
What looks cute at 18 is really obnoxious and inconvenient
at age 23.
And most of what you put on line has the potential to stay on line
forever.
Here's an example. This is a shot of Olivia
Spauer being interviewed by Huffington Post after she lost her teaching job
at a high school in Florida because she had posed for
some racy swimsuit photos. This, despite the fact that she used
a different name for her modeling work. I hope you know that just because you make
your social media accounts private, they are not really all that private.
Potential employers have ways of accessing these accounts.
College admissions officers have methods for seeing your posts.
My advice to you. Friend
your mom or grandmother and I am quite serious about this,
and don't post anything on line that
you are not comfortable with them seeing. This is just a great Guard your on line reputation and let your friends know they need to ask before they post pictures
safeguard. Guard your on line reputation and let your friends know they need
to ask before they post pictures or stories about you.
Not only will you be helping yourself, you may help them
to start thinking about being more careful as well.
I know I've already made this point, but please read your book. It has some interesting
things to say about social media etiquette, privacy, and finding a balance
between social media and face-to-face time.
That's it for this week's lecture. Hope you have a great week!