My Thoughts On This Class

My favorite thing about this class was the ability to see my peers’ thoughts and ideas on the reading and in turn get their responses on my thoughts on the reading. It made the class more interesting and made me look forward to seeing if anybody responded to any of my posts.

My least favorite thing about the class was the 12 hour restriction. Being required to post our responses 12 hours apart made things difficult on weeks when I was completely swamped with work because I would sometimes completely forget to post a comment or a response even though I typically already had it written out. Having to wait to be able to post my responses really hindered me.

The 12 hour restriction is the only thing I would change about this class. I found everything else to be thoroughly enjoyable and thought-provoking. I felt that the word count requirements were just right and got us to explore topics in-depth.

What I've Learned

I’ve learned that there are a multitude of things that contribute to our communication that most of us are either completely unaware of or are aware of but don’t really think about. For instance, take how we create our “self-concept”. It’s fascinating that “…the self starts from the outside – front how particular others view us.” We communicate with particular others, in other words people who are important to us, and in the process of doing so we absorb what they tell us about ourselves to create our self-concept. Personally, I never would have thought about something like that but after reading about it I realized how true it is.

Another concept that really stood out to me as something I never would have thought to define is the idea of “styles of loving”. In my mind I knew from experience that there are different forms of love and ways to show your love but I never thought to classify them and define them. Although I probably wouldn’t have been able to even if I tried since feelings of love can be confusing and complicated to describe or define depending on circumstances.

 Overall, I think I’ve learned to understand the intricacies of communication and its role in our day-to-day interactions and relationships. I believe I’m much more emotionally intelligent as a result of this course and can more effectively communicate not only on a verbal level but nonverbally and emotionally as well.