Gender Differences in Communication

                       Men and women may become friends, get married or work together but at the same time our communication styles are quiet different, I believe its because our view on the world around us is different We may get into arguments over the issues that isn't even there because we see things differently and put accents on different words or phrases. Listed below are some differences between  man and womens way of seeing things and handling communication

                                                             Women

Seek out relationships with others
Relate to others as equals
Prefer interdependency, collaboration, coordination and cooperation
Make decisions based on mutual agreement
Desire closeness, togetherness and affinity
Care for the approval of peers
express themselves more in private
Are more open to share problems
Tend to focus on details of emotions
More concerned with feelings
May mix personal and business talk
Tend to ask for help, advice and directions
Offer sympathy
Display empathy
Desire to understand problems
Tend to take a more sober look at challenges
Men
Tend to seek standing and position
Relate to others as rivals
Tend toward independence and autonomy
Choose or resolve by force, persuasion or majority rule
Desires space
Tend to seek the respect of their peers
Express themselves more in public
Keep concerns to themselves
Tend to focus on the details of fact
Often will not ask for advice, help or directions
Freely offer advice and analysis
Are problem solvers
Tend to look at challenges as a game unless life and death is at stake

retrieved from : http://www.speechmastery.com/gender-differences-in-communication.html

Racism

Racism is the belief that a particular race is superior or inferior to another, that a person’s social and moral traits are predetermined by his or her inborn biological characteristics. Racial separatism is the belief, most of the time based on racism, that different races should remain segregated and apart from one another. -from 'http://www.adl.org/hate-patrol/racism.asp'

Ageism

The video is from 'Home Alone' it is about a boy who is forgotten by his family and left at home by accident while his family went on a vacation. This part of the video shows ageism when most of his family doesn't believe what he says and punish him for no reason.

OK sigh

Touching the thumb and index finger to suggest a circle, with the other fingers on the hand fanned out, indicates that everything is okay in the United States.
In Brazil, Germany, and Russia, however, it indicates a very private orifice and is an insult.
In Japan, the sign indicates that you want change. Use this gesture if you want a cashier in a store to give your change in coins.
In France, it is an insult. It denotes the number zero or the concept of something being worthless. When placed over the nose, it means “drunk.”
from this article we can see the importance of understanding the cultural differences in non verbal gestures. even such common gesture as "OK" sign  has different meanings as we travel around the world. Unfortunately, a lot of misunderstanding occurs because we are not aware of this kind of cultural differences.

retrieved from : http://irreference.com/gestures-to-avoid-the-ok-sign/

What i want to hear

This is what usually happens in most marriages. sometimes our partner, misunderstand the message given or hear what we want to hear.

miscommunication

This picture shows a serious human communication, when we misinterpret signals or messages.

HOW IS ONLINE COMMUNICATION DIFFERENT ?

 Nowadays you can hardly find a person who owns computer and doesn't communicate online. All those social networks such as Facebook, Friendster, Orcut  , instant messengers such as MSN, ICQ, QIP  has millions of users all over the world. It is great to be able to communicate in real time with people who are miles away, be able to keep in touch with friends and family members who moved to another country , and just make new friends in different parts of the world. But do we understand that there is some aspects of online communication that are not seem to be a part face-to-face  communication?

There is some examples:

***Many shy people find it easy to express themselves online. Typing on your own computer doesn't feel like a social situation. There is less anxiety than there might be in a face-to-face situation. Physical attractiveness is also less important online. This is the probably the basis of the famous cartoon where one dog is showing the internet to another dog, saying "On the internet nobody knows you're a dog."
***Sex is often easier to discuss than it is in a face-to-face situation. This can lead to increased online flirting in otherwise platonic relationships.
***The lack of nonverbal cues and tone-of-voice sometimes result in miscommunication. "Flame wars" often result from an online post which was intended to be taken lightly or humorously but was taken seriously or critically. The liberal use of smiley faces ";-)" to connote that a statement is meant humorously helps a little, but it may not be enough to prevent a flame war.
***The Internet is the great equalizer. A high school student can correspond with a Nobel Prize winner on an equal footing on the net. Behavior Online is a good example of this principle. Mental health professionals and others can interact online with some of the most prominent clinicians and researchers in the field.
***Gender switching and pseudonyms are fairly common. Online chat rooms are full of people who are identified only by a nickname. On the Internet you can pretend to be anyone or anything you want to be. An analogy might be a Halloween costume party. In costume people are often brasher and more outspoken than they would normally.
 retrieved from  http://mentalhealth.about.com/cs/computerstuff/a/onlinecom.htm

COMMUNICATION PROCESS

When we talking about communication in our daily life , we don't really think about its mechanism...for us communication is something that happens naturally, something that we used to, however, it is important to know what communication is all about .

Communication is a process and as such contains many elements susceptible of defect. Here are the elements of the communication process .

• A message: what need to be communicated
• A messenger: the person who has something to communicate
• A receiver: the person who will receive the message
• Encoding: verbal and non-verbal convention of communication
• Decoding: reading by the receiver of the encoding done by the messenger
• Channel: the means of communication

This process works as follows: The messenger has something to communicate, a message. This message has an intent. The messenger will encode his message with words, behaviour and body language that he senses will help him to best communicate this message according to his intent. The message will go through a channel, a means of communication such as e-mail, face to face or phone conversation, letter, presentation. The receiver will then decode the message using conventions, cultural or contextual background, and language skills. The message he receives might or might not meet the intent of the messenger
retrieved from : http://soft-skills-development.suite101.com/article.cfm/communication_model

Extroverts.

Extroverts tend to:

Share their energy, excitement, and enthusiasm with almost anyone in the vicinity.

Respond quickly to questions and outward events.

Share personal information easily.

Communicate one to one or in groups with equal ease and enjoyment.

Think out loud, interacting with others, and, in the process, reach their conclusions. In addition they often don’t give others a chance to speak and don’t always attach tremendous meaning to what they say.

Prefer face-to-face, oral communication over written communication.

I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant. Robert McCloskey

Here are the differences between introverts and extroverts.

Introverts

How Introverts Communicate

In The Introvert Advantage, Dr Laney says that introverts tend to:

• Keep energy, enthusiasm and excitement to themselves. Introverts hesitate before sharing personal information.
• Need time to think before they respond. Introverts need time to reflect before reacting.
• Prefer communicating one to one. People with introverted personality traits don’t like parties and groups as much as extroverts do.
• May occasionally think they told you something they didn’t, because they’re “always going over things in their head.”
• Need to be invited to speak or be drawn out. Introverts tend to prefer written over verbal communication.

In this article, it is important how different people interpret and understand different situations.

debate competition

Debate is a formal method of interactive and representational argument. In a formal debate competition, there are rules for people to discuss and decide on the differences, within a framework defining how they will interact. --from wikipedia

facial expressions in communication

Facial expressions are feelings or emotions we show on our face. There are seven recognized emotions that are shown through facial expressions such as fear, anger, happy, sad, surprise,contempt, and disgust. When we show some of these facial expressions, people would know what we are feeling.