Listening Styles

I see myself as a People-oriented listener. Growing up, I was always a big reader and I think that contributed to my love of stories, regardless of where they come from. To me, the stories of others have always been much more fascinating to me than talking about my own personal experiences. I don’t know if it would be the best listening approach in all situations, but I think being a People-oriented listener, even to a small degree, can be helpful to create a friendly conversational environment. I often move out of this primary approach while giving tours to family who are visiting Rider’s campus. I become a Time-oriented speaker in those situations to ensure that I can give my tour group all of the necessary information about Rider in the time it takes to tour the campus.

Technology and Interpersonal Communication

I like to think that I create a pretty accurate representation of myself via the internet, or at least a somewhat ideal version of myself. For the most part, I use my facebook account to keep in touch with family members or friends who I am not in regular contact with or for asynchronous communication.

I think the biggest aspect of my personality I try to put forth with the signaling theory is my sense of humor. Most of my comments to friends are jokes about something I overheard or a comment about something they have said to me.

My relationship with social networking is an odd one, I don't really poke people blog, I mostly just use it as a convenient way to keep in touch with friends and family.

Adaption Theory

Conversation 1- For the first conversation I tried something simple with eye contact. Whenever my friend started talking I would let my eye sight wander to something just above her head. After doing this a few times she started turning around to see what it was I looking at. Eventually she gave up and demanded to know what I kept looking at. As far as adaptation theory is concerned, my lack of eye contact suggested that I spotted something more interesting than our topic of conversation which made my friend want to discover it as well so she could adapt to what she thought was a more interesting topic of conversation.

Conversation 2- For this conversation I stepped into the role of the dreaded low talker. As I moved closer to my friend they responded by backing away. Eventually, they just gave up and ended the conversation rather than ask me to stop moving closer. It was interesting to see the difference between the two conversations in that one friend asked me to what I was looking at while another friend simply left the conversation rather than ask me to stop moving closer.

Conversation 3- For my last conversation I tried half listening and one-upping my friend. They eventually got tired of talking to me and also left the conversation.

Intimacy Levels Test

The score I received on the test was a 97 which is above the mean. I think this makes sense, I have always been a very open and friendly so it doesn't surprise me that my score is slightly higher than the mean. I hope that with these behaviors I am putting forward a friendly personality that people feel comfortable interacting with. I don't know if there are any behaviors that I am not portraying that I should, but I'm pretty comfortable with the persona I portray so I'm pretty comfortable with it.

The Power of Words

There's an old saying, more of an old cliché, that the pen is mightier than the sword. Argue all you like about the overuse of this phrase; it's a cliché for a reason. Words have an incredible amount of power when wielded by a great orator; they can spark the beginning of a great political movement, or the downfall of a corrupt ruling class. However, it is not enough to simply tell people to fight against injustice or to challenge corruption. Words must be carefully chosen so that they can stir people to excitement or create a strong argument to prove why change is needed.

One of the strongest historical moments that shows the power of words is Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have A Dream" speech. It's a testament to the strength and power of this speech that almost everyone in the country can recite at least one line from it. Dr. King used his speech to encourage African American's to persevere against the injustices they were facing on a regular basis and to look forward to the days of peace and harmony that he knew were on the horizon.

The content of the speech was appropriate because it encouraged nonviolent protest. Dr. King’s followers were facing extreme violent prejudices and it seemed as though the only logical response to that was with more violence. He told the crowd gathered in Washington that day of his dream, a dream he prophetically said he may not get to see, of a day when people would be living in harmony regardless of race, gender, or creed. It was a powerful moment and it helped a nation to believe that the dream could come true but only through harmony and understanding.

I think the only time it would be both appropriate and respectful to use Dr. King’s speech to someone else’s effect in a situation where they are trying to bring people together or to extinguish prejudices among a group of people.