Communication

I am getting really lazy about posting, so hopefully I can pick it up. Today I don't have to work and I think I am coming down with a cold, so it is a good day to relax and do some blogging.

Lately I have been more fascinated with how people communicate. When someone speaks in your language, you know instantly what it means. Not only that, but speech can promote a wide array of thoughts and ideas and convey huge amounts of information. Think about if you were looking for something. If you can speak to someone, you can easily ask where it is and that person can just as easily tell you where it is if they know. But now think about trying to find something without being able to speak or write. It would be much more difficult if not impossible.

I think we take speech for granted a lot of the time. We get lazy about our communication, and that's when misunderstandings happen. We don't give allowances to people who have a hard time communicating such as deaf people, blind people, autistic people, people who can't read or write, and many others. Why are we so harsh on those who can't do what we take for granted and those who communicate in a different way? We should try our best to understand everyone, no matter how they communicate.

Maybe the reason I have been thinking about communication is because I have been reading a book called Thinking Fast and Slow. This book deals mostly with the way people think, as the title indicates. It describes two systems of thinking - System 1 and System 2. "System 1 operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control. System 2 allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it, including complex computations."

Anyway, I won't go into the book too much because I haven't finished it and I also wouldn't do it justice. But it is very fascinating, and I would highly recommend it.
I only mention it because System 1 makes me think of nonverbal communication because it allows us to do things like understand someone is mad just by looking at their face or detect hostility in a voice. Although nonverbal communication cannot convey complex ideas, it can sometimes give as much information as verbal communication.

I think I don't write as well when I am sick, so at the risk of being convoluted, I will wrap up this post. I just think communication is interesting, both verbal and non verbal. I think it is important to not take communication for granted and to be careful how you communicate, because you might end up communicating the wrong message. Also, go easy on those who have a hard time communicating because someday you may be the one who no one understands.