on communicating

I am a Communications nerd.

It’s true.

Studying communication doesn’t always mean that you are good at holding conversations or good at telling stories, or even that you can analyze all forms of communication. These are few of the misconceptions I meet whenever I tell someone that I majored/am majoring in Communication.

Communication is a part of everything we do. In one of the first communication courses I took at Maryland, we learned that there exists a school of thought that claims “All behavior is communication.”

This is the school I belong to.

I view myself as part anthropologist, part psychologist, part sociologist, part journalist.

I like to observe the way people communicate and interact;

I like to analyze what communication and behavior means;

I like to learn about writing and I like to write;

I like to study how people learn and how people understand various messages;

I like to understand the reasons behind different behaviors.

Clearly this could be explained to eternity, and for right now this is just a simplified discussion. Of course, for certain research and certain situations, communication must be defined much more narrowly. Overall, though, everything we do, consciously or subconsciously, communicates something to someone.

This doesn’t mean that what we communicate is always what we intended to (or didn’t intend to) communicate. Various aspects (noise) can get in the way. Literal noise, language barriers, cultural differences, mode of communication.

This is all probably why I ended up loving my major so much. It can be taken in pretty much any direction. My Masters degree is taking me the business/organizational route. But it could end up taking me into strategic HR or business services. Even within those categories, the possibilities are endless

Communications was a good fit for me, because I didn’t have one clear-cut passion when I started out. Actually, I once told someone that I wanted to major in talking, because that was something I was actually good at. Guess that kind of became reality.

Sooo…

How did you choose your college major?

What are some ideas you have had or heard about communication?

Do you agree that “all behavior is communication” ?