The Story That Communication Can Entail

By Lily-May Hawken

Image 1: (Winfrey, n.d)

https://www.inc.com/graham-winfrey/10-ways-to-improve-internal-communication.html 

We as the human race are very diverse, and what distinguishes us from other sentient beings is that of written language and communication. Although our forms of language and communication are not the only defining difference we possess, Tuan suggested in his writings, that we as humans would not have the “capacity to formulate ideas, translate them into actions that culminates in a built place (Tuan, 1991)” if we lacked such things.

Taking this into consideration, it would raise the question evolving around how our own experiences and our own perception of place can affect our interpretation of language and speech, through autonomic lenses. Such interpretation of the worlds in which we live are all affected by the micro, macro and global structures that seem to accumulate and affect us throughout our lives (Furze, B et al., 2015). As put forth in Sapir and Worf’s theories, which surround the idea that the world in which we live, is not merely a single world that’s labelled differently according to a person or a group, but are distinct worlds, many of which are experienced in fundamentally different ways (Sapir 1958, p.69).

This ‘characterisation’ of worlds is evident in the network of Care2, as the community is diversely situated in the world we commonly come to accept. This is of course shown through the many issues that surround the world which are raised, and due to the connections made between networks such as Facebook, almost anyone can read and express their point of view on that specific issue. Yet, due to the fact that everyone experiences their reality differently, no one will truly know how the individual perceives the world we live in and the way they choose to express it.

This community mapped out as a whole, appears to represent the world as a crude place, one of which the human race needs to change. With this in mind, parts from the earthbound philosophy could possibly be applicable in this network, even if members do not have that distinctive perception of the world. Despite this issue, the many petitions seem to apply this philosophy, especially the part in which the Australian Aboriginal’s believe that “to wound the earth is to wound yourself” (Chatwein,B 1987). This clearly correlates with petitions about global warming, which can show that seemingly spiritual connection with the Earth and the need to protect it. Care2 is also is very open to who can be involved in their community, which allows for diverse responses and perceptions of the world, showing that there’s little limitation to what can be expressed.

Through the emotive and relative sense of the community, it creates and communicates a sense of speculative place, which could be perceived as a negative or positive form of place (Tuan,1991). This of course as put forth by Karyn Hall (2012), will depend on your own mood and those of others around you, for example if there was a petition put out that may be controversial, the members reactions may be on completely different ends of the spectrum, based on if they’re triggered in a particular way. This in turn showing how subjective experiences can affect one’s ability to communicate.

Reference List:

Chatwin, B. (1987). The songlines, London, Great Britain: Cape.

Furze, B., Savy, P., Webb, R., James, S., Petray, T., Brym, R.J., Lie, J. (2015). From Personal Troubles to Social Structures’, in Sociology in Today’s World. 3rd ed Cengage Learning Australia. Melbourne, Australia.

Hall, K. (2014). A Few of the many ways we distort reality. Retrieved from: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/pieces-mind/201208/few-the-many-ways-we-distort-reality

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (1958), p.69. Kuttainen, V. (2017). BA1002: Our Space: Networks, narratives and the making of place, week 5 notes [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au/ 

Tuan, Y-F. (1991). Language and the making of place. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 81(4), 684-696. Retrieved from https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au/  

Winfrey, G. (n.d) Communication Image. Retrieved from: https://www.inc.com/graham-winfrey/10-ways-to-improve-internal-communication.html