The Importance of Interpersonal
Communication
It has been said that our survival
as social beings depends in large on our interpersonal communication skills. It
is easy to under-emphasize the importance of everyday communication. Whereas
public speakers often deal with issues of national importance and members of
decision-making groups often design important new products, members of
interpersonal dyads tend to spend their time in what seem to be less
significant pursuits: gossiping, joking, or simply passing the time. Viewed in
this light, interpersonal communication hardly seems to be a topic worthy of
serious study. What if you for one hour of the day, you did no communicating?
During this hour, you did your best not to communicate verbally and you keep
your non-verbal communication to a minimum.
1) How do you think this
experiment would make you feel during that one hour that you could not
communicate with others?
2) How do you think others around
you would react to you not communicating to them? What might they say to you?
3) What do you think your behavior
would be like by not communicating with others around you?
4) What do you think the behavior
of others around you would be like?
