Week 10 Reading Review #3

One concept from this week was the topic of online communication such as social networking. Facebook is hands down one of the largest online communication outlets that people of all ages go to. It is amazing how fast technology has taken over many aspects of communication. Not just in the business world but it has taken on even deeper characteristics. The characteristics it has taken on are those that you see in face to face communication such as disagreements, arguing and conflict. People can fight over the internet, publicly humiliate people and even “throw punches”. By throwing punches I am talking about people giving out viruses in order to crash sites or steal information. It is a viral “mugging” of people. Technology is on its way to become more and more dominant in the communication world. Hardly have you ever seen a job in communications that do not involve some type of online usage. Technology amazes me.

Week 10 Reading Review #2

At the moment I do not have an event that I find myself not forgiving anyone. I have no problems with the people in my life and I can not complain. I am an extremely forgiving person so it is hard to find a past event to fit this response. I forgive easy but I do not give back the full respect the opposing person once had from me. I have been lied to and heartbroken but can not point out anyone in my life I have never forgiven. I do not think everyone is perfect so you can never expect perfection. I guess my “non-forgiving “manner is me not giving the full respect back the other person once had. I had a good friend who could not keep a personal secret I told him. I did not stay mad at him but our friendship was never the same because I could never bring myself to feel close again to my friend.  

Week 10 Reading Review #1

I am a member of the social networking site called Facebook.  Even though I have a Facebook, just like many others, I do not feel as if I use it like everyone else uses it. I use Facebook more as a way of looking around at what is going on with my friends. I hardly ever hold conversation with my friends on Facebook and I never post anything.  I am not exactly sure how I present myself but because of the lack of things I say or post I assume that I am being judged based off my pictures and what people post on my wall. I have normal pictures and the only person who post on my wall is my girlfriend so maybe people think I am that “relationship” guy but I would be lying if I said I was a relationship guy at all. I hope people get the impression that I am nothing that they find the need to go gossip to their friends about. I don’t want people thinking anything negative and I don’t exactly feel the need to have people know if something exciting has happened to me. I am more of a “to myself” kind of person. I use to have people always saying things on my Facebook that I wish they didn’t let everyone see and that was part of the reason I did not want my mother to be added as my friend. Thankfully that has stopped and I can finally add my mom which makes me happy because she has been nagging me about it for years. Facebook has a downfall to me which is the fact that people can basically say whatever they want even though you may not want them to do such a thing. This relates to communication and conflict because Facebook is a communication tool that is used by millions of people.  It is the definition of communication through technology but what comes with this technology is the lack of privacy. If someone wants to post an embarrassing picture for hundreds of your friends to see it can be done in seconds. This creates a conflict because people have power that is easily abused.

Week 9 Reading Review #3

This week I found the most interesting topic to be about work versus play. Many people complain about having to work and having no time for leisure but most of these people don’t know how to manage the two. When work and leisure are managed correctly you may find that leisure is more available than you think. I like how chapter seven talks about how you need to identify your work and play to better understand your life.  Then you must understand the meaning of play and once you do you can learn to integrate your work and play. Personally my life is all sports and school so naturally I consider my sport as play and school as work. Recently though I am doing my best to find the joy in any aspect of my school and I’m coming to find that there is more play involved in school than I thought. More things are becoming fun and enjoyable which in the end is allowing me to apply more effort in my school work. I feel this new way of going about my school work is helping me achieve better grades and a new outlook on what I find to be work. This may be the most memorable chapter of this semester for me.

Week 9 Reading Review #2

When it comes to my anger I do my best at expressing it calmly. I hardly blow up with aggression because I find that to be useless. When you blow up I feel people are more focused on how you acted then the actual subject you are blowing up about.  I will admit though that if my anger builds up over time then there is a possibility I will express it with what people may see as “blowing up” but that is not a normal action for me. I try to express my anger in a very calm manner because to me it is very affective. It keeps both parties focused and allows for both parties to clearly hear what the other person has to say. Just because it is expressed calmly does not mean that there is no arguing going on. I find that handling anger in this way makes people think dealing with me is easy but I can promise that does not mean I am somebody that is easily manipulated.

Week 9 Reading Review #1

Many people would divide life into two categories which would be "work" and "leisure".  More often than not people would rather have leisure than work. Some though do claim to have complete leisure and that is because of a certain way they approach their life. In chapter 7 it talk about the importance of making a distinction between work and play, understanding what play is exactly and integration. I plan to approach my work and school commitments in a way that compliments the three solutions in chapter 7. Making a distinction between what I find work and play to be in my life is key because then I can plan my week accordingly. I will know when to be excited and looking forward to play time and then I also would not be blindsided by work. Although before I do that I need to first understand exactly what "play" is. Play is not defined by the actually experiences but it is defined by how it effects the people making those acts. If I find running up and down a flight of stairs to be fun then that is my play where as someone else may find that to be work. Once I establish what my play and work is then I could sort out the activities I do in my everyday life. Lastly is something that is not as simple as the rest but it can help. It is a tool that I feel is used by those who seem to have more play than the average person. These people use integration and by that I mean they take what they may at first seem to be play but then turn it into something that brings them joy and consequently that turns their once work into play. I plan to establish my work and play then plan out my weeks. After this I will begin my journey to having as much play as possible by looking at the joy things bring me and making that my main focus. Over time I feel this will help me succeed and live a stress free life.

Week 7 Reading Review #3

From this week’s reading I have taken the concept of trust to be the most interesting. I Say this because trust is not exactly black or white. Trust has its own levels and you can never be too sure about anything. One moment you give someone all your trust and the next moment that trust has been broken. I feel depending on the level of your communicative relationship with someone determines the level of trust you have with another person. I feel that once trust is broken by one person who you gave the highest level of trust then for some time it is hard for you to give that level of trust to anyone. Trust is a sensitive thing that I feel goes over looked not by those giving trust but by those trying to gain trust.  I have lost trust in someone I thought I could trust many things with. What I found weird was how little they cared and how they did not seem to put any effort in trying to gain my trust back. They still wanted to remain good friends and act as if everything was fine and nothing happened. I feel this person overlooked the issue of trust and slowly it ruined our relationship.

Week 7 Reading Review #2

I feel an unbalanced power relationship has its effects on people but it depends on the type of relationship. In a parent to child relationship there should be more power on the parent side. I am not a parent but I feel the parent should not feel like a warden but more of knowing that they have a responsibility of keeping their child safe. The children who are in less power should never feel abused, that is of course unless they really are being abused. Children should feel a sense of respect towards their parents for everything they do for them. In a relationship such as a boyfriend girlfriend or marriage things are different. If one person has more power than the other I feel that is unhealthy and can cause many problems down the road. There are chances that one person may be correct and the other wrong but they both should know that there is a mutual respect and they should come to terms with what is best for them both. Having more power in this type of relationship can cause “power trips”.  Those in less of power can either feel helpless or sometimes trapped. People should have equal power levels in a relationship with a partner. Other times, such as parenthood, more power should be given to one side. In the end if the power is distributed correctly in the correct situation people should feel satisfied.