Student Unions can Enhance Interpersonal Communication and Relationships

I refer to the article 'Mercyhurst College's Student Union: A place for friendly conversations' published on Erie Times News, 29 May 2009.

This is a piece of writing which talks about the conducive environment that the student’s union in Mercyhurst College provides for its students to have another common place to have interaction and build interpersonal relationships with their peers, instead of spending all their time behind the computer at networking sites communicating with their friends. Students can eat together at the Union’s eating spots, or take part in different activities like watching movies; playing board games; watch movies or simply just interact with each other, building such good relationships till the point where they describe these relationships to be just “like a family”, where “there’s plenty of teasing, the relentless kind that only good friends can get away with”.

I personally feel that this is a very healthy environment where people can get to know more friends, and engage in face to face interaction, something networking sites like Facebook and Twitter just cannot provide. Online social networking can enhance interpersonal skills, but only to a small extent. Good old things like watching movies, and playing board games or having dinners together are still better done the traditional method by gathering people together. No matter how advanced technology can get, at this moment it is still impossible to fully replace the traditional and real face to face communication as through the wire, true emotions are lost. An everyday example can be seen from the abbreviation ‘lol’, which most commonly represents ‘laughing out loud’. It might have used to mean that the person behind the computer was literally laughing, but now it is more often than not used as just filler for a conversation that you can’t continue, or even to display hints of sarcasm at certain moments. At times, it might be impossible to tell the message that the other party is try to get across. In these cases, social networking can be rather insincere.

On the contrary, I think that when a small group of friends physically hang out together, they engage themselves in dyadic communication that places them in direct contact on topics that are more personal, and get to know each other more intimately. Such spontaneous and informal discussions are more real, allowing us to immediately tune our conversations according to forms of non-verbal cues like Paralinguistics and Oculesics of our partners. Back to the article, it is not difficult to notice the level of comfort between the friends as they “finish each other's sentences and pick food off each other's plates”. These are actions where people will not do unless they share a close relationship with each other.

It was also noted that “the discussion goes around the table, virtually nonstop, without a laptop, cell phone or text message in sight.” This proves that we don’t need the modern gadgets if we can have interpersonal communication with people face to face, as the latter is still the richest medium with better quality.

In conclusion, I feel that schools should set up similar student unions or programs to create more chances for students meet more friends, to lead the younger generation out of their virtual world back into reality.

Influenza A(H1N1)

This week’s editorial cartoon was created on the topic of Influenza A(H1N1), also known as “Swine Flu”.

The cartoon, titled Porky The Swine, includes various Looney Tunes characters. It describes Porky the Pig resting in bed due to the common seasonal flu, with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Elmer J. Fudd by his bedside, looking extremely displeased. In the cartoon, both verbal and non-verbal communications of facial expressions are effectively used. Porky tries but fails to convince the rest that he has only been infected with common cold. From the speech bubble, he can be seen to be stuttering, a type of non-fluencies under Paralinguistics. The distrusting expressions reveal a form of non acceptance probably caused by fear in the three characters while they make use of the Organisational Principles of Closure to make the assumption that Porky has been infected by “Swine Flu” because he is a pig.

Editorial cartoons like the above reflect very clearly how the society views the H1N1 influenza. We can draw a parallel between the characters in the cartoon and the real world. Porky represents infected patients or places with numerous reported cases of H1N1; the other characters portray the general public. Even though the official name of the flu has been changed Influenza A(H1N1), it has still being largely referred to as the term “Swine Flu”. The usage of the slang has caused language-based barrier to the public that is particularly misleading. Countries including Russia and China have banned pork imports from Mexico and parts of the United States (places where H1N1 was first discovered) in the belief that meat could spread the flu. Egypt has also made the decision to kill all the country's 300,000 pigs. This has had a disastrous impact on pork sales and pig farmers.

Referring back to the cartoon, facial expressions and weapons in the characters’ hands might be suggesting the society’s over-reaction to the current situation. In the outbreak, Cuba, Ecuador, Argentina and Peru have banned flights going to Mexico. Haiti rejected a Mexican ship last week carrying 77 tons of much-needed food aid because of swine flu fears. Lebanon’s health minister has called for a halt to the national custom of greetings with kisses. Such actions have led the public to organise information provided with the principle of Figure and Ground, as they zoom in on the speed that H1N1 is being spread around the globe and that H1N1 has 11,168 reported cases of infection and caused 86 deaths, yet fail to take into account that Common seasonal flu infects 3 to 5 million and kills up to 500 thousand people a year worldwide.

Although the descent into a global pandemic is not inevitable, I still see the importance for people to be well informed and not deluded by biased information, so that they can stay calm and be well prepared to respond quickly in case the disease evolves.

Greg Pritchard, Talent of Britain

Perception is the process by which we make sense of the world around us. It is influenced by our thought processes, character and experiences.

This is Greg Pritchard, who auditioned for Britain's Got Talent, a talent show on the British television just last Saturday, 9 May 2009. From the photo, are you able to guess what Greg was going to perform?

At first glance, Greg presented the image of a performer of rock music. It might be due to appropriately product-placed hairdo, adequately applied eye liner, black leather jacket, ambiguously androgynous rocker-boy image. This is where the concept of Cognitive Schemata can be seen very clearly. We often use schemata to form impressions of other people. In this case, personal prototypes have affected my thinking, as Greg has a sufficient number of traits that matches what i think is typical image of a rocker.

However, the genre of music he was about to perform was the last thing I would think of. The video will definitely surprise you like how it surprised me.

Who would have imagined the singer with the rock star looks singing Nessum Dorma, an aria from the final act of Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot, one of the best known pieces in opera? While watching the video, I noticed that I was not the only one taken aback with what I saw. After hearing such a glass-shattering falsetto emanating from a ruggedly soul-patch-accented male mouth approximately 40 seconds into the video, the camera was zoomed in to feature the judges’ astonished faces, followed by the speechless audience who were looking at each other at loss, trying to observe if there were others who were startled by Greg’s performance like themselves. This form of a non-verbal interaction was achieved among the audience. Only after recovering from shock could the audiences be able to once again select, organise and interpret what was happening before them. Eventually their perception of him changed from a rock star to the opera singer, giving him a standing ovation near the end of his performance.

I guess Greg might be making use of Novel Stimuli to seek more attention from his audiences, by dressing like rock star, a stark difference from the genre of what he was going to sing. As novel stimuli caused better response compared to normal stimuli, he would be able to leave a deeper impression in the viewers’ minds. I am sure people will remember the rock dresser who sang impressive opera in a mezzo-soprano’s voice for a very long time.