"Are we human? Or are we dancer?"
The quote above came from the song Human by The Killers and I felt it is an interesting quote because it poses the question: Are we like humans who can feel and react accordingly to our own free will or are we just dancers who stick to the choreography of the dance? Are we mere puppets of societal pressure? Personally, I feel that we are somewhere in between the two extremes. Humans have the freedom to choose what they want to do and they certainly have free will but this freedom has its limits; Humans are nonetheless bounded by social norms of right and wrong amongst others.
I chose to start with that verse from Human because it emphasises why effective communication is important to me. Effective communication would allow me to express myself and yet be within the acceptable limits set by society. Communication is a platform for me to connect with the world; to tell people my stories, to help them understand me. The ability to speak, signal, smile and cry are the few examples from an infinite range of possible communication methods. The list is inexhaustible. Hence communication is an important avenue for self-expression for myself and also possibly everyone else.
It is important for me to not only communicate but to do so effectively. Effective communication is important for me to express myself as much as possible. Have you ever been in a situation where you want to say something but because of an apparent ability to think of an appropriate way of saying it, you decided to not say it so as not to be called a "weirdo". Good communication skills would allow me to know the limits of acceptability and also give me the ability to stretch this limit as much as possible. In short, effective communication would allow me to speak my mind appropriately. The more effective I am, the more honest I can be with myself and others and with the least amount of repercussions.
I want to be a dancer, perfecting my art and my dance steps and yet still retain my unique individuality because I am human after all.
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ReplyDeleteHi Jude,
ReplyDeleteYour perspective towards communication is indeed rather creative. Humans or puppet dancers? I never thought of it that way.
Oh yes, I can certainly understand how it feels when you did not really convey your message and everyone just gives you strange looks. Effective communication skills will certainly be useful to avoid such awkward situations.
Nice post. Will continue to follow your blog.
p/s: Which makes me wonder... The way you put it here, it seems like effective conversation is not innate among us.
Valarie: To a certain extent, I agree with your statement at the end of the comment. We are probably not natural communicators since we have to first learn the rules of society before we try to communicate or else we might have broken some informal rules that might not be written in black and white. Rules are a social construct and to communicate with that society with those certain rules, people have to first learn the rules.
ReplyDeleteI bet you took the introduction course on Sociology. As I read your blog entry, I could not help but relate many of the things you said to the sociology modules I took before. I think sociology provides an interesting point of view on how people behave.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with you that humans are probably not natural communicators since a large part of communication is nurtured. But how about the universal means of communication that is innate in us such as crying, laughter, facial expressions etc?
Geraldine: Yeah, I did and even though I did not enjoy sociology, the sociologist's perspective is probably one of the point of views that I used most often. I like to talk about society and nations so I guess I would use sociological explanations quite a fair bit.
ReplyDeleteRegarding innate means of communication like crying, I feel that this is an example which shows nature and nurture go hand in hand. Crying and laughing are perhaps some "tools" that humans are borne with so that they could go on from there and develop further comunicating skills. One cannot walk without legs. Similarly, crying are kind of like building blocks of advanced communication. This is just a proposition though. Nature vs nurture is quite a debatable issue but it is a fun topic haha.