Hey Scholars, the focus this week in class is interpersonal communication and this is a really robust area of communication studies and as you think about it there's some really good reasons for that. This is, you know, some might say the kind of the stuff of life. It has, interpersonal communication has traditionally focused on kind of interactions, communication dynamics between individuals or in groups.
So some of, when you think about life and the most important things in life, I would guess a lot of this would be covered by interpersonal communication. So things like friendships, there are scholars who study friendships, you know, study friendships that has traditionally been kind of face to face, but increasingly over digital communication and friendship, how that works is interpersonal. Dating.
marriage, romantic relationships. There is a lot of scholarship on this. Again, this has traditionally been in the kind of face-to-face, in person, but increasingly robust scholarship about digital dating and some of the, you know, all that that entails.
Family communication is another very large. body of scholarship in interpersonal communication. And so, you know, as I describe those initial things, some of you might think, well, that's good for, you know, that's good for life, but how does that help me with careers? Again, I would, I've kind of said this before, but kind of think through that carefully. You know, is the career itself the end of life, or is the career something that is a part of this larger experience of what it means to be?
to be human. So interpersonal communication can certainly help you with some things that I think most of us would say are extremely important aspects of life, even if you don't get a paycheck from it. There's a lot of scholarship right now in popular media about what people are calling the loneliness epidemic in the nation.
And I think that is something that, you know, some of you watching this have felt that. I think most of us will experience that at times in life. And so interpersonal communication is a way that communication studies and communication scholars can really speak to some needs that people are facing.
That being said, there's also interpersonal communication really is a workplace situation or. communication issue as well. So I worked for like 15 years in non-profit work and I can tell you that kind of interpersonal relationships really make things go. You know, I think sometimes we think that it should be, you know, should have, especially in the academy, right? We should have a good strategy and a good plan and those things are really important and you can have the best data and you can have a, you know, a good plan and good logic behind it.
But if you don't have good interpersonal communication, if you're not building up trust and rapport, if you're not hearing what other people are saying, then you're in a really rough, you have a really rough path in front of you. And I would say some Certainly plenty of nonprofits as well as for-profit workplaces. The big flaw hasn't been lack of resources, although that is important.
It hasn't been smart people making decisions, although that's important. Or skilled people, again, that's important. But it's been flaws in interpersonal communication, misunderstanding, that have things go sideways. have things blow up and not go according to plan.
So, you know, if you recall what employers are looking for, this is one of those big issues, right? Being able to communicate with other people, being able to work with teams and groups, interpersonal communication helps us in those areas, and it's a really important aspect. This week you'll also see some other... maybe non-traditional ways of looking at interpersonal communication.
you know issues like racial bias come into interpersonal communication and so that is another area where our scholars as communication studies scholars are stepping in and hopefully can make a good impact. So hope you enjoyed this week's readings give me an email if you have any