A little farther across the continuum are those messages that produce only a
mental response. If someone says to you,“The United States should withdraw from
the United Nations”and you only think about this statement but don’t respond
outwardly, you are still responding. It does not matter that your response does not
have an observable action. As you proceed across the continuum, you come to
responses that are harder to detect. These are responses to messages you receive by
imitating, observing, and interacting with others. Generally, you are not even aware
that you are receiving these messages. As your parents act out their gender roles, you
receive messages about your gender role. People greet you by shaking hands instead
of hugging, and without being aware of it, you are receiving messages about forms of
address.
At the far end of the continuum are the responses to messages that are received
unconsciously. That is, your body responds even if your cognitive processes are kept
to a minimum. Messages that come to you can alter your chemical secretions, your
heart rate, or the temperature of your skin; modify pupil size; and trigger a host of
other internal responses. These biological responses are covert, and they are the
most difficult to classify. They do, however, give credence to our assertion that com-
munication has a consequence. If your internal reactions produce chaos in your sys-
tem, as is the case with severe stress, you can become ill. Thus, regardless of the
content of the message, it should be clear that the act of communication produces
change in people.
While everyone receives and responds to messages, the nature of both the message
and the response is rooted in your culture. The grief associated with the death of a
loved one is as natural as breathing; each culture, however, determines ways of coping
with and sharing that grief. These responses to the outside world can range from wail-
ing loudly to maintaining a stoic exterior.
The response you make to someone’s message does not have to be immediate.
You can respond minutes, days, or even years later. For example, your second-
grade teacher may have asked you to stop throwing rocks at a group of birds that
were on the playground. Perhaps the teacher added that the birds were part of a
family and were gathering food for their babies. She might also have indicated that
birds feel pain just like people. Perhaps twenty years later, as you think about eating
an animal, you remember those words from your teacher and decide to become a
vegetarian. It is important to remember the power of your messages and to consider
the ethical consequences of your communication actions, for, whether or not you
want to grant those consequences, you are changing people each time you exchange
messages with them.Communication Is Complex
One point should be obvious by now: Communication is complex. As you have seen
to this point, communication can involve controlling, informing, persuading, and
relating to others. And reflect for a moment on all the bodily and mental activity
that accompanies even the simple act of saying hello to a friend. From the stimulation
of your nerve endings to the secretion of chemicals in your brain to the moving of
your lips to produce sound, thousands of components are in operation (most of them
at the same time). Not only are there countless biological and physical factors coming
into play all at once, but there are also many elements to each person’s personality.Communication Is Complex 35Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).