I think that communication can come across or be described as a game. I think this because through our words, the way we carry our body language and our facial expressions we can make conversation into a game. The start of the “game” is when one person’s comment, opinion, etc., sparks someone’s reaction. It can be a bad reaction or even a good reaction. The communication that will then go back and forth can be twisted and manipulated in order to “win” the “game” or the argument at hand. When I think of this I think of tennis, because there is one person on each side of the “net”, or center of conversation and the whole time they are tossing information back and forth to one another. It works just like a tennis match; one person feeds their statement (ball) to the other, who receives it, and then vice versa.
Discussing the idea in terms of "winning" the "game" I believe denotes and downplays the individuals within the interaction. As discussed within the chapter, the pragmatic approach neglects the personalities and cultures of the individuals taking part in the interaction and I believe this is why I personally disagree with the whole concept altogether. Your argument on how the perspective can be a game is understandable and concrete. I applaud your discussion. So I would say that in answering this weeks' question #2 it can, in a way, make sense to think of communication as patterned interaction and be able to produce ways in which communication can be viewed as a game, but I would still say that it insults the participants and disagree with the concept.
ReplyDeleteI totally believe that it’s similar to a game. I like how you chose tennis and changed statement to “ball”. My boyfriend is a volleyball player and whenever I go visit him in Huntigton Beach, I watch him and his friends play volleyball. After I read this chapter and the section about communication being like a game, I thought of the times I watched his matches. Then I read your post and thought of how tennis and volleyball are a lot alike. When they are on opposite sides of the net, 2 players or even 4, they are communicating!
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