Two monologues

Even heroes have the right to bleed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do you interpret from this?

  

 

 

 

 

 

  

  

Guess.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Try.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Give up?

Keep staring. You’ll feel something.

Beautiful isn’t it?

That was easy. If you’ve got Love/Sweet/ Beautiful, you’ve just got influenced by me. (: Now how about I tell you that ‘girl’ is actually a dude? Not so sweet and beautiful anymore amIright?

See how words can just easily warp your perception?

Some of you have brought up that nonverbal cues are statistically proven that they play a bigger part during communications. I’ll have to disagree (though the statistics.). When there is no context, anything nonverbal can be interpreted as something else.

Don’t worry emo boy. She loves you. With all those tell tale signs, you definitely got something there. Really.

There’s another thing about nonverbal communication, it being natural and hard to control, it’s very dependent on the receiver and how they interpret it. There is NO absolute certainty when interpreting verbal or the much more difficult nonverbal cues. Both are equally as important during communication. They are both part of a whole.

I know, I know, what about the avatars, personal biases. Let’s leave that for another day shall we?

Still following?

Let’s talk about first impressions. What do you look out for when you first meet a person?

 

Would it be their voice? Imagine Megan Fox with George Clooney’s voice, or Brad Pitt with Tyra Bank’s voice – you get the idea.

Or would it be their physique? In all honesty, unless you’ve got the biggest sonofa ____, this shouldn’t be one of your criteria for attraction.

Appearance? This could easily be changed with a little bit of makeup or some surgery if he was really THAT unkind to you. False appearances – how would you judge then?

Their walk? Personally, I hate male prancers (I’m a dude.).

Their smile. Ah, my personal favourite.

The eyes? Windows to the soul.

Hair. Nothing kinky boys.

Or just their ‘aura’? In local language, their “seh”. (:

How would you judge then? Just because that person is lacking in one of those areas, you could already decide like – “Oh, he’s definitely not my type. I wouldn’t talk to him.” On what basis are you judging people? Your personal avatars? A little too quick to judge don’t you think? Even so, first impressions should not be the only impression.

Alright, I’ve been undervaluing nonverbal communication.

Not all things have to be said outright, and words can only mean so much. It’s the nonverbal part which helps amplify or convey the true meaning of words.

An idiot can tell that they were both uncomfortable at the beginning (that’s nonverbal communication at work, and some good acting – communicating to YOU!). They both warmed up to each other gradually through smiles and glances (again, nonverbal communication!). These nonverbal codes are useful for giving us information about personal and relational topics we would be embarrassed to talk about, or  we find difficulty to describe verbally. Nonverbal communication is nonlinguistic and often contains representative behavior.

How often have people told you nonverbally what they will not tell you with words, and you have ignored those silent messages?

I am king, hear me speak roar.

Quack?

We are only all too human. Verbal communication is the very basic of social interaction, but with the myriad of languages and cultures in the world, miscommunication may result from misinterpretation.

That’s the boring stuff. Moving on.

You’ve been suckered guys.

Words can be used to manipulate the thoughts of the person or just to deceive. Think sales people. I quote a friend, “When you’re purchasing cologne and you ask the salesperson what they think of the cologne on you, they’ll definitely say something like – oh you smell really sexy in it. That’ll boost your self-esteem and make you think hmm, she’s right, I think I should get this bottle.”

If a message supports current beliefes, attitudes, and values, we tend to find it compelling. If it enhances our sense of self-worth, we may accept it without question. Yet it is in exactly these situations that we should be wary. (Thinking Through Communication 5th Edition – Sarah Trenholm; page 57)

It’s not all gloom and doom with words though. What better way to express emotions but through words?

The famous scene in Love Actually.

Sometimes I find myself looking at your pictures over and over again. Sometimes I enjoy the feeling of missing you because then I know that I’m not a freak of nature. Sometimes I try to memorize the look on your face, the feel of your hands, the taste of your lips because I know the night is over too quickly and I will wake up without you. Sometimes I go to sleep looking at your texts, just so the night feels safer.

But sometimes it feels like there’s a huge weight sitting on the middle of my chest. Sometimes I fight the urge to buy a plane ticket with my savings and just leave everyone and everything behind, no explanations and no forwarding address. Sometimes I walk by the places where we used to sit and wonder where you’re sitting these days. Sometimes I repeat the saying “Action is the enemy of thought” in my head to keep me going, one foot in front of the other. Sometimes, some days, all I want to do is cry.

How are you interpreting this?

Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.

Maya Angelou

Well in other words, watch your words.

This will bring us to the other point of SELECTION. People choose what they want to hear or read and they’re already making judgements.

You’ll go crazy.

There’s too much information going around in the environment for us to take in everything and process it at the same time. Our brain (wonderful thing), sorts out what should be processed based on specific criterias (consciously or sub-consciously). Ranging from frequency, contrast, intensity, novelty to beliefs, preferences, motives, priorities, culture.

Too much info – Brain burn.

In other words, we perceive what we want to take in, limiting our views on things. (omission *failure to select critical info, distortion *failure to prioritise important info or to select wrong info, oversimplification *selected salient info, failing to select significant info. yawn.)

What do you think? Do words lose their colour if used too often? Does clichés change your perception of words said or written? Are people coming to a conclusion too quickly?

No, don’t get ahead of yourselves Liverpuldians. I was referring to a different KOP.

 &

KOP KOP!? GOOD COP?! BAD COP!?!

The King of Pop. He looked so young.

He’s been on the news so often recently that one must really be under a rock to be totally oblivious to what has been going on. Well for those who do live under one (how are you online now anyway?), Michael Jackson suffered cardiac arrest at his home in Holmby Hills Los Angeles, California on June 25, 2009. He was treated by paramedics at the scene, but was pronounced dead at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.

Rest In Peace.

His death led to a crazy rush of information flooding the internet, a simple search for “Michael Jackson Death” will get you almost 2000 different sources. I was skeptical when I first heard the news too. Communication from the psychological perspective is the encoding and decoding of messages, and from the message passed on to me, I decoded it as another publicity stunt by advertisers to boost their television ratings. Miscommunication have occured here because of the mental set the receiver (me)  perceives. One moment I was told that Michael Jackson was going to make a comeback tour and the next thing I knew, I woke up blurry eyed and was told that the man was dead. Being distracted by a competing internal stimuli have caused this miscommunication.

Never in Neverland.

After that, media coverage of Michael Jackson surged. For a man whose last media “news” was in 2006 about his closure of Neverland Ranch due to financial problems, one would question the true intentions of the media. Tributes by other entertainers also started pouring in, most of whom have been faded to the back alleys of the entertainment industry. The Game a rapper debuted a tribute song – Better On The Other Side, on the day of Michael’s death, featuring vocals by other artistes such as Diddy, Chris Brown, Polow da Don, Mario Winans, Usher, Boyz II Men. Rapper LL Cool J wrote and recorded a song Billie Jean Dream. Rapper Akon did Cry Out Of Joy.

Kairos (καιρός) an ancient Greek word meaning the right or opportune moment (the supreme moment).

Call me skeptic, but I believe that these “friends“ done the tributes knowing that they will gain public attention and maybe even use Michael’s death as a publicity platform.

What say you? Has there been too much media coverage of Michael Jackson death? Are people just making use of the opportune occasion to deliver their message?

Sources: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/07/06/entertainment/michaeljackson/main5137779.shtml

Oh hi there! This is actually an assignment that is going to span over 8 weeks! Feel free to provide constructive comments! (: