Words Are Only 7% (?) of Your Communication

brianlux

The notion that words are only 7% of communication is fascinating. The rest of communication, it is said, is made up of tone-of-voice, body language and facial expression. (This information was used a number of times to good effect in teaching communication skills when I was the program assistant for a Human Services program at our local college.)

The exact percentages attributed to various parts of communication are academically debated but there certainly is some truth to the idea that words only constitute part of our communication and that the other components are very important. I sometimes wonder how keyboarding our thoughts affects communication in on-line forums like this one. I suppose use of italics, BOLD PRINT, color, and faces can add a bit to that word percentage but I still wonder how much of what we say to each other in this type of format is misunderstood.

Any thoughts?

voidofman

Sarcasm is nearly undetectable online.

brianlux

VoidOfMan wrote:

Sarcasm is nearly undetectable online.

Interesting. What would a smiley for sarcasm look like?

voidofman

brianlux wrote:

VoidOfMan wrote:

Sarcasm is nearly undetectable online.

Interesting. What would a smiley for sarcasm look like?

Probably a smiley face since sarcasm is usually delivered with an odd smile.

voidofman

And yes I completely agree with the words are only a part of it, tone is a major factor, especially with children. If you are trying to discipline a child using a playful voice they hear the tone first and play off that.

I've messed with dogs where you use the playful, "that's a good boy!" voice but call them fucking morons and they wag their tail because they think they are being praised.

brianlux

VoidOfMan wrote:

I've messed with dogs where you use the playful, "that's a good boy!" voice but call them fucking morons and they wag their tail because they think they are being praised.

Yes! I've done that with our store cat (she's so cool, really the best), by saying in a really sweet voice, "Oh Goldie, you're such a worthless little piece of shit", and she replies, "purr!, purr!".

81

VoidOfMan wrote:

Sarcasm is nearly undetectable online.

you don't say :lolno:

voidofman

81 wrote:

VoidOfMan wrote:

Sarcasm is nearly undetectable online.

you don't say :lolno:

What's messed up is that I wasn't being sarcastic there (or here)

Kind of a useless fact.

81

VoidOfMan wrote:

81 wrote:

VoidOfMan wrote:

Sarcasm is nearly undetectable online.

you don't say :lolno:

What's messed up is that I wasn't being sarcastic there (or here)

Kind of a useless fact.

i know...i was just trying out the sarcasim smilie

voidofman

It worked. lol.

mca47

This idea needs to be a class taught to all girls in grade school.
For whatever reason chicks have this idea that flooding the room with constant yacking is some for of communication?
At the end of the class, there is one math question:

If 7% of what you say is truly communicated, and 5% of that 7% is actually absorbed by the male sex, what percentage of words should you be saying?

Weird_Henry

mca47 wrote:

This idea needs to be a class taught to all girls in grade school.
For whatever reason chicks have this idea that flooding the room with constant yacking is some for of communication?
At the end of the class, there is one math question:

If 7% of what you say is truly communicated, and 5% of that 7% is actually absorbed by the male sex, what percentage of words should you be saying?

You're being sarcastic...right?

81

mca47 wrote:

If 7% of what you say is truly communicated, and 5% of that 7% is actually absorbed by the male sex, what percentage of words should you be saying?

depends....

do we absorb a higher % when there are fewer words or does the % remain flat regardless of the number of words?

unlost dogs

You should see my expression... Right now.

#€|*{[+*# mobile app lack of smilies

81

unlost dogs wrote:

#€|*{[+*# mobile app lack of smilies

hehe

pandora

brianlux

pandora wrote:

Nicely done and almost there! Lets see, words, body language facial expression... you almost have it Pandora. We just need a little volume to get tone of voice!

FinsburyParkCarrots

Even in written language, the semiotics of communicative acts are complex. Roman Jakobson argued that prose language works on a syntagmatic axis: meaning is facilitated and generated by the syntactical relations of words in a phrase, sentence, paragraph, semantic field or text. He also argued that poetry works on a paradigmatic axis: although poems use syntax to construct meaning, they push poetic style to the foreground in conveying 'unspoken' communication of powerful feelings. In poetry, meaning comes perhaps more intuitively and on the level of physical response, by the selection of equivalent sound patternings, formulae or repeated instances of tropes such as image or symbol that trigger our unconscious in some way. I suppose our brains register some non- verbal and pre- linguistic, emotional associations with repetitions of vowels or consonants in poetry (or some rhetorical, speechifying prose), and we 'hear' or 'feel' the effects of poetic discourse on a non- verbal level. The power of persuasive prose or poetic language is that it seeks even in the written form to transcend its own limits and hopes to effect as visceral response in the reader as spoken language - with all its paralinguistic signifers such as register, tone, timbre, volume, pitch and dynamic - even though it's just squiggles on a page or screen.

Now, back to eating this cheeseburger. Nomnomnom, cheeseburger.

ShimmyMommy

Does 10C sell these, or is it free of charge?

chadwick

interrogation techniques

brianlux

FinsburyParkCarrots wrote:

Even in written language, the semiotics of communicative acts are complex. Roman Jakobson argued that prose language works on a syntagmatic axis: meaning is facilitated and generated by the syntactical relations of words in a phrase, sentence, paragraph, semantic field or text. He also argued that poetry works on a paradigmatic axis: although poems use syntax to construct meaning, they push poetic style to the foreground in conveying 'unspoken' communication of powerful feelings. In poetry, meaning comes perhaps more intuitively and on the level of physical response, by the selection of equivalent sound patternings, formulae or repeated instances of tropes such as image or symbol that trigger our unconscious in some way. I suppose our brains register some non- verbal and pre- linguistic, emotional associations with repetitions of vowels or consonants in poetry (or some rhetorical, speechifying prose), and we 'hear' or 'feel' the effects of poetic discourse on a non- verbal level. The power of persuasive prose or poetic language is that it seeks even in the written form to transcend its own limits and hopes to effect as visceral response in the reader as spoken language - with all its paralinguistic signifers such as register, tone, timbre, volume, pitch and dynamic - even though it's just squiggles on a page or screen.

Now, back to eating this cheeseburger. Nomnomnom, cheeseburger.

That's a mouth full even without facial expression, body language or tone of voice. Oh yeah, so is the cheeseburger!