The COMM:PAKT question of the month: How does communication work?
Having started my master’s degree in communication studies, one of my lectures inspired me to write something about the process of communication. All of us communicate every day – with our family, with our friends, with our colleagues, even with people that we don’t or hardly know. And I think that’s really interesting. How is it possible that we usually understand each other? How does communication work?
Well, it works because we all have more or less the same understanding of certain things. We all know the meaning of a table, a mug or a car. And it also works with living and even more abstract things, such as “democracy”. But this intersubjectivity that allows us to understand each other only is possible because we communicate. In this sense, understanding and communication exist in a circular process. We understand each other because we have shown each other (over a long, long time) what the meaning of everything around us is. This is best seen when we observe children learning to speak and thus communicate. They learn the meanings of everything because they see and hear how other people around them use and speak of things.
Of course, there are always situations when we do not understand each other, but that is another issue…
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Check out the author’s page: About Nina Grzybowski
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