Description
Read “Alone Together” on Page 49 and answer Questions 1 and 2.
Please be sure to expand upon your posts with examples. Posts should be at least two paragraphs per question, so you should have a total of four paragraphs.
Then please respond to another classmate’s post as required for all Discussion Board posts. Remember, that responses to classmates must also be two paragraphs. Remember it isn’t enough to just agree with their post. Please be sure to respond by giving your own examples of how you can relate as well.
Book name is: Adler, R. B., & Proctor, R. F. (2017). Looking out looking in (15th ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth make sure that the 15th edition please.
This is a classmates post please also replay to this one everything is in instruction.
1. To what extend do you prioritize mediated communication when you’re in face-to-face encounters with others?
After reading this passage I took some time to thoroughly think about just how much I prioritize mediated communication when in face-to-face encounters. I believe that for myself I do not prioritize mediated communication much if any at all when I am with others. The main reason being, I grew up learning that if I am communicating face-to-face with anyone it would be rude to ignore or get distracted while someone is speaking. I believe when someone is taking time out of their life to speak to you about any giving subject it usually is for an important and reason, and thus would be wrong of me to ignore them. Now this does not mean I don’t get distracted or I am a great listener. It just means I do my best to be attentive and a part of the conversation even if I may not find it to be the most enjoyable. Which brings about another point, sometimes in group conversations I will get distracted and browse my phone and look at social media while others have conversations. But even at a certain point I feel rude if I spend too much time being distracted.
An example is the other day for a new years party I was with a group of friends and family, having a lot face-to-face encounters of the course of a night . During the time frame I would occasionally go to use different forms of mediated communication while the party was going on. But I never was on my phone or device for longer than a couple minutes, the reason being, I didn’t want to alienate myself from the rest of the party. Now I do have friends that more heavily prioritize mediated communication, and will usually spend roughly 70-80% of their time on a mobile device browsing social media or texting other people even when surrounded by friends or family. Usually these friends will be the first to go or to fall asleep at the social events. I personally think prioritizing mediated communication over face-to-face encounters is not too healthy in the grand scheme of things, and may make future encounters more difficult to deal with, especially when dealing with strangers. I feel it would be great if more people recognized the drawback of mediated communication, so that we can all be aware of when and where is the best time to use it.
2. How would your important relationships change if you created device-free zones and times?
I believe if I created device-free zones and times, it would create a more positive impact on my important relationships. The reason being that by not having devices around, I could have more face-to-face encounters where I can see the emotion’s of whoever I am speaking to. In seeing emotions, I can try to empathize or relate to speaker on a more personal level, and learn about “why” they feel the way they do. By being able to relate with my important relationships, I would be able to learn new things about them, and the relationship would only grow stronger over time. I feel too much time is lost when interacting with an inanimate objects, especially when we have others around us who we are able to share in conversation with. I believe when we just spend a little less time on our devices, we can come to appreciate face-to-face encounters just a bit more, and in the long run improve our daily lives and those of the people we care about.
A great example, is when I was growing up before mobile devices were as prominent as they are now, I was able to spend a lot of quality time with my family. In particular I spent many afternoons, talking to my grandfather and learning about his favorite hobby, which involved reading different books and novels. One of my grandfather’s greatest joys in life to this day is to read, and by doing so he learned so much about plenty of different subjects. He could easily talk to anyone about any given topic, just solely off of the knowledge he had read through literature in his lifetime. Due to the lack of devices back then, I was able to hear all about these different stories from him and learn to appreciate reading as a pass time. Now if I grew up where mediated communication was more common as it is now, I may have missed out on hearing all these stories from him and wouldn’t enjoy reading as much as I do now. I truly believe that if we could implement device-free zones and times, it would only be a positive impact on our lives, and would help strength our relationships.
