Importance of Analyzing Communication

It is said that 70-90% of communication is non verbal. ("Contract Pricing Reference Guides." Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy. 19 Mar 2002. 2 Oct 2006 .)This means that when conversing with someone, what they are actually saying verbally only accounts for around 30 percent of what you gather from the entire speech. When communicating with someone you are not only listening to the words, but looking at their facial expressions, body position, hand gestures, the tone of their voice, etc.

A great example of how true the first statement mentioned, can be seen in email or chatting online. When typing to someone you aren’t able to put forth your emotions, tone of voice, or even your facial expressions. They are just reading what you type. When typing something sarcastic to someone you can’t really put emotion into it, and they can’t assume your being sarcastic because they are just reading the words you type. The only way they’d know was if you put “insert sarcasm here,” or something similar.

I think that people started to notice this lack of being able to communicate effectively with chats and emails, which is why I think “emoticons/smileys” were made. They imitate a facial expression. For example if I was to say something that I meant to be funny I could throw in , or if I was angry I could throw in . These simple emoticons help send our message clearly. By seeing these the reader can make more sense of what were saying.

Here’s an example of this:
John says: That band last night was great.
Steve says: Yeah it was amazing alright.

Or

John says: That band last night was great.
Steve says: Yeah it was amazing alright.

From this you can see that you have to look past the words when speaking with others, and that a simple facial expression or change in tone of voice can alter what the speaker is actually saying.

(Emoticons taken from Windows Live Messenger)