Entry #4- Good old days.

Helloooo my friends! Time for a new post again! :D

So, this week's all about Group Communications. Before I continue, let me just add in a couple of snapshots, ok? :)

Snapsot One

Snapshot Two


Snapshot Three

Snapshot Four

Snapshot Five

Snapshot Six

Snapshot Seven

Snapshot Eight

There you have it. These images just popped into my head when it comes to Group Communications. Yesss, I loveeee these people so so much! :D

For instance, Snapshot One was taken back in my secondary school days. Yup! They're my girls and we all belong to a group commonly known as "IJ Girls". Does it ring a bell to any of you guys? Haha.. Those were the days when life was full of unexpected events. It was all about girlfriends doing all the silly stuff together like gossipping, going against the school rules, having girls' talk over the phone, etc. We even discussed on issues such as when to "pon" school and all. Haha, miss those days soooo much~

Of course, most of us would probably not only be in a single group right? Project groups in school, clique of friends in school (primary, secondary, tertiary level and all). For me, one group that contributed part to my group memory was the people I met in my music school. (Snapshot five and six). It was interesting how we, from all over singapore gathered together, unknowingly.. with the passion for music and gradually becoming a social clique where we would spend the whole day together filled with fun, joy and laughter. Cliche, I know.. But it's that way! :D

And sadly to say, social groups alter quite frequently for all of us, am I right? Not saying we cut off contact completely from our old peers, but joining and creating new groups as we carry on with our lives. Just like now! In UB, most of us have our own clique of friends whom we define them as our "closer peers" as compared to others, am I right to say that too? :P And some of us may even find that we dont react or behave like what we do in our other social groups.

In my point of view, everyone plays a different role in a group. And, everyone changes their roles in different groups they're in too. Get what I mean? Hmmm, another fictional example would be.. In school, Jane (an imaginary friend) may be a project leader where she leads and does all the organizing of meetings. However, among her friends, she's the one who always has to be called for gatherings. In short, give-and-take kind of character to fit into different group she's in.

In conclusion, I feel that being in a group makes one feel special in a way that he or she can actually link themselves to the group they belong to, in times of making any decisions. In good and bad ways I would say? Good would be having people that can keep you company at most of the times, helping you make decisions, etc. Bad would be having to make wiser decisions as an individual as some of those individual decisions would bring about different effects to the people in your group such as causing misunderstanding and so on.

This entry is just what a group is to me. So, can you share some of your thoughts about this topic too? Enlighten me! :)

Entry #3- Is that so?

Frankly speaking, I was kind of surprised when I came to know that this week's topic was about Interpersonal Relationship, as some of us may find this topic rather personal in some context. However, I must admit that it is, in fact, interesting.

When's the last time you feel attracted to a person? Was the attraction reciprocal? Pause for a second. Try make yourself recall on how it all came about and how it all come to an end (if any).

If we were to link back to the 10 stages of Knapp Model of Relational Development, the "coming together" part will be Initiating, Experimenting, Intensifying, Integrating and Bonding, and the "coming apart" part will be Differentiating, Circumscribing, Stagnating, Avoiding and Terminating. Though I think that these 10 stages would likely be the phases of which the majority would go through, I have no doubt that there may always be exceptions.

Apart from it, I'm curious as to which part of these stages happen to appeal to you the most? For me, it's the first stage- Initiating.

When I was reading through our lecture slides once again, I realized it wrote there:
- Screening and filtering
- Self -presentation
- Cautious and "safe"

What I found fascinating was actually the very first point- "Screening and filtering". How do you "screen and filter" someone? As a matter of fact, I think that it differs for both genders.

I'll just start on the process of how we (girls) may carry out this process of "screening and filtering" since I am a girl myself. :) I'm sure most of the girls out there have their own group of friends whom they share most of their thoughts and feelings with. And, this would include sharing information about their recent crushes or eyecandies that they've met. Right, girls? :) From there, their friends will then start helping the individual to analyze a few aspects of the guy which include his appearance, character and most importantly, helping her to look out for the guy's response towards her. For instance, whether or not the guy is showing any signs of reciprocal feelings towards her, and so on.

The reason as to why I found this particular process fascinating is due to the fact that though this process of "filtering and screening" a person is just the very initial part of everything, you'll be surprised to know that, this is too, the stage where most you find out the most about your crush or eyecandy. Despite of not knowing the reasons as to why this is so, I would reckon that it is due to the effort that we're willing to put in in wanting to know more about a particular person, such as adding someone on your MSN list or facebook account, exchanging your cellphone digits, asking your friends who knows him, etc, just to get to know the person more. Silly I know. But, this is in fact how it starts out for most of us, isn't it?

On the other hand, I tried asking one of my guy friends as to how guys would start checking a girl out. He said they too, have a couple of friends whom they share these girl issues with and, they would too, start "observing" the girl in their own way. (Sorry! I have no idea as to which ways guys would turn to as that friend of mine said that it's a "secret" -_- Haha. Anyone of you boys out there who are willing to share?) One of the difference I found was that they do not do it in an obvious manner, where some girls are likely to.

Apart from that, let me share something that I found rather unjust, that is, guys can actually "observe" up to more than a girl at a time! Afterwhich, they will then choose someone whom they think that has the best characteristics of all. I know that everyone has his or her own freedom of choice, however, isn't it still relatively hurtful if the girls whom they are observing find out that they are being judged upon like the animals for sale in a petshop?

So, why don't you people out there tell me aout your thoughts about this issue? Feel free to comment whether or not is it a positive or a negative one. :)

Entry #2- Murderers?

Hi all, I received an interesting email last weekend. It is regarding a concerning issue on a recent sport in Canada called "Hunting". The pictures below were attached together with the email, illustrating how this particular "sport" is carried out. Before I continue, spare a couple of minutes to have a look at them.

Picture 1

Picture 2
Picture 3

Picture 4

Picture 5

Picture 6

Picture 7

Picture 8

Picture 9

Picture 10

Picture 11

Pictur 12

A related article of this can be found on http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-555209/Shock-pictures-Is-Canadian-government-means-humane-slaughter.html.

Agonizing, isn't it? In the email, it also appealed to people to write in a petition on a linked website to stop the killings of these innocent seals.

This email would be a perfect example of nonverbal communication. It demonstrated nonverbal communication by making use of pictures to convey its message to its recipients with the extended help of some usage of words for further enhancement. Needless to say, no usage of verbal communication is present.

A characteristic of nonverbal communication would be that it is subjective to individual. Hence, each of our perception towards this email of appeal regarding the sport, "Hunting" , would be different.

During lecture this week, we were questioned on what attracts us to a person/thing on first aquaintance. So, what is it about this email that attracted you initially? For me, it was the dainty image of the baby seal, thinking that it is just be another email circled around, filling with photos of adorable animals. However, I was wrong. Instead, it was filled with macabre and revolting images of those animals.

From my point of view mentioned above, we can relate to the nonverbal channels which include:

• Making Initial Judgements
• Relational Information
• Emotional Expression

Making Initial Judgements

Making initial judgements would be the process of us "picking up cues" about something that we already know linking those cues to what we have in front of us. For instance, like what I've demonstrated above, would be linking my impression of baby seals as cute to the first picture I saw in the email that I have yet to read.

Relational Information

3 kinds of relational information (liking, status, and responsiveness) are exchanged nonverbally during every interaction.

The relationl information that is found in this email would be "liking". According to our text, liking is "indicated through facial expression, eye contact, proximity, and the like". The close-up pictures of baby seals in the email are examples of liking. Why? It may be ridiculous to say that seals have facial expressions. However, it is astonishing to realize that in some of the pictures above, we can literally feel what the baby seals are experiencing through their facial expressions and eye contact that are captured in the pictures themselves. Wondering what I'm referring to? Take a look at Picture 8 and Picture 10. In Picture 8, fear is captured in the eyes of the seal. In addition, the feeling of sorrowfulness is felt seeing the bloody tears that flowed out of the seal's eyes. Amazing, isn't it?

Emotional Expression

Most of us are able to feel for people, don't we? When we see one of our friends in sadness, some of us would want to go forward to give that friend a warm embrace, right? Another example would simply be how we feel after seeing those pictures above; We want to play a part in helping the seals! And, this fits into what is commonly said, "actions speak louder than words".

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From my point of view, I reckon this activity should be banned. Moreover, I anticipate that this issue would be brought to more attention by the public. Perhaps, even the mass media can be put into good use to spread the message out to the whole world so that less innocent lives would be taken away from "our" hands.

SO! What are your thoughts and feelings regarding this "sport"?