Something more...

Sometimes I can't help but wonder why I only write about relationships. Relationships with men... relationships with my family... relationships with my friends... not to mention the relationship I have with myself... I always write about relationships. Every time I write down my thoughts, something about a relationship is what tends to come out. There was a certain train of thought that got me to thinking about why I write about relationships and ironically enough the train of thought had nothing to do with relationships, well kind of... are you lost yet? Let me back up.

Seven years ago I was a freshman in college. Seven years ago I was very uncertain of what I wanted to major in much less what I wanted to do when I graduated college. I was a typical freshman unaware of what life is really all about and oblivious to the reality that what I choose to do in college would alter my life forever.

I started college with an obsession for science. In high school I loved science. I took every science course Midland High offered... Biology I & II... Chemistry I & II... and Physics. I wanted to be a Biochemist, although fate had something much different in mind for me. Upon high school graduation I was offered an academic scholarship to UTPB... UTPB did not offer Biochemistry. They offered Biology and or Chemistry but I was torn between which to major in. After browsing the catalog I decided to wait and take my general education courses first... plus one elective... Mass Media and Modern Society. And I fell in love... fell in love with Harold Innis... Marshall Mcluhan... Claud E. Shannon... and Warren Weaver. Theorists who were able to not only look at communication and media and the effects that each have a society but were also able to predict the future, i.e. my favorite theorist... Mcluhan. As a result I majored in Communication.

I am quite certain I have now probably lost over half of my readers who think this is very boring, but trust me it is far from boring.

Getting back on subject... now that you have an idea of what I studied in college you might just understand why it is relevant in my thought process. I am without a doubt an Internet guru... I love this stuff. I check my email goodness knows how many times a day... in fact that is the last thing I do before I go to bed. And for sure I am also a myspace junkie... I can't help it... it is addictive. The whole idea behind the Internet communication process, just totally blows my mind. But seeing as I also have a slew of communication theories constantly playing war in my head I tend to interpret the communication through the Internet in a different way than most.

The best way to explain is by example. Internet communication is much different than interpersonal communication; the media affects it. Of course so is communication over the telephone or over the TV set but unlike these the Internet lacks personal emotion... no one can hear your voice over the Internet or see your face (minus Web cams and the like, lets stick to text)... so most would say it is similar to print communication... but taking away the time and space issue (another theory another day) and it happens instantly and more like a conversation. However when taking away emotion and visual communication the message is at a high risk of being misunderstood... Therefore leading me to my thought process and getting back to relationships.

Today just like any other day I have been having online conversations via myspace and email all day long. I have talked to at least twenty or more people today over the Internet. For the most part it has been simple communication like... "Hi how is your day" or "I am sending you that file now"... some of my communication is more personal and serious and some is meant to be light hearted and fun (“meant to be” being the key phrase here). Sarcasm does not translate well over the Internet... even with the use of emoticons or all the lol's in the world. Sometimes it just doesn’t come across as funny. And I strongly believe it is neither the sender nor the receiver's fault for this error in message interpretation but yet is the fault of the median.

I am sure if McGavin is reading this he is saying “oh if it were that simple,” and yes how I wish it were that simple. Truth I cannot completely put all the blame on the median but I feel very strongly that it is the main culprit in the crime. However it is still necessary to bring into consideration all the communication the sender and receiver have had with one another plus all the communication they have both had with every other person, medium, and other factor that has come into their life… not to mention the communication they have with themselves. After all that is said basically it is just per chaos. And relationships cannot occur without communication thus relationships are just per chaos. So I write about relationships because I want so badly to figure out the equation to the chaos… but truth that is why it is chaos.

Maybe another day I can write about myspace communication and the theory behind it… Marshall Mcluhan’s Global Village.

I am Living Single in Texas.