Sadly to say, I am guilty of the mindless communication on a regular basis as described on page 344. The phatic communication example is almost verbatim to conversations I have had with parents at my daughter’s school when we pick up the kids. Unless either one of us is willing to spend the time to stand and share more intimate details of our lives, the conversation tends to be the very polite, mindless, phatic communication. For me, sometimes the small talk is due to being rushed and wanting to at least acknowledge the individual in a somewhat passing conversation. Other times, the kids just want to go and there isn’t time to have real conversations. The other excuse, for the lack of a better word, is that you sometimes wonder when someone asks you how you are if they really want to know. Especially, if you follow up with an explanation of how your life is going. In the workplace, this type of conversation happened a lot between coworkers but usually in the beginning when you are getting to know one another and feeling out the person to see if they really want to have more meaningful conversations.
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