Standpoint

Max Browning
April 8, 2015
Observation 10

I am entering into my third year on the Executive Board of Ball State University Dance Marathon.  We raise money and awareness for Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis.  The organization is completely student driven.  This year, I am fortunate enough to serve as the president.  Throughout the year, we rely on the support of people much more powerful than us for financial support along with time and location donations for our fundraising events.  These companies are usually hesitant to donate to us.  They see us as college students trying to change the world, but they do not think that a group of college students will be able to accomplish that.  On the flip side, we see the impact we are making and the greater impact we can make if these businesses would treat us with some respect.

According to the Standpoint Theory, those without power in society are able to provide a more objective perspective than those with power.  While the businesses are focused on their bottom line and how much profit they are bringing in each day, we are able to see how the business can impact our mission without losing anything.  One of our fundraising practices is known as canning.  We simply ask that the store either allow us to place a Riley bucket near their register or that they allow us to stand at their entrance for several hours and ask patrons for a monetary donation.  Neither of these practices deter much from the companies mission, yet they often help us in achieving our own; however, the people with power cannot see this.  Because they have the power, their standpoint on the requests do not allow them to think critically about how this could potentially benefit them in unforeseen ways.  For example, I know that I, as a consumer, enjoy going to stores that are hosting fundraisers or accepting donations for a cause.  I rarely donate, but I do enjoy seeing that the business is trying to give back to the community that supports is.

Genderlect

Max Browning
April 8, 2015
Observation 9

I was meeting with the Dance Marathon vice presidents this week to discuss plans for our upcoming (well, not upcoming by the time you read this...) retreat with the rest of the executive board.  Two of the vice presidents are female and then myself and the other vice president are both males.  Before this final discussion of the retreat, we asked the rest of the executive board what they wanted to gain from this retreat.  They said that they wanted to get to know each other and do minimal work.  During our discussion, one of the female vice presidents continued to bring up the idea that we should break off into our focus groups and work on goal settings; however, the other three of us reminded her that the rest of the executive board wanted more ice breakers.  In the end, she backed down and our retreat is about 75 percent ice breakers with only the required business to attend to.

According to the theory of Genderlect, men and women communicate in drastically different ways.  While men talk to report, women talk with rapport.  Focusing on the differences between my male vice president and the female vice president who backed down, she asked a multitude of clarifying questions in regards to his suggestions; however, she never offered anything that conflicted with his points and when she did, she would add tag questions, you know?  One thing that did somewhat contradict the Genderlect theory, however, was that she told a lot of stories to show her viewpoint, but the stories would have her as the focus.  Genderlect suggests that women often tell stories with other people as the focus.

The theory also suggests that women prefer private talking to public talking.  This makes me wonder how she would have backed up her opinions had it only been the two of us talking about the retreat rather than the four of us (technically there were also our graduate assistants, but they were preoccupied looking for information about another question we had).

Agenda Setting

Max Browning
April 10, 2015
Observation 8

As I said in class when asked about where I receive most of my news updates, I am more or less not updated on anything in current events; therefore, these situations regarding media communication are extremely difficult for me to find.  That being said, after googling for the Daily News website, the top story was about the International Justice Mission's Stand for Freedom.  The article talked about how this student organization is standing for 24 hours in honor of the victims of sex trafficking worldwide.  Stephanie Metzger, the organization's president, talked about the importance of the event and the awareness it creates for students on Ball State University's campus.

The Agenda Setting theory has a mantra that the media does not tell us what to think, but what to think about and how to think about it.  After reading this article in the Daily News, I could only think that sex trafficking is a major problem in the world today and that it needed to be stopped; however, the article is certainly framed to help tell the organization's mission.  The theory states that there are three different aspects of framing: selection, exclusion and emphasis.  The story selected to include the voices of long time members of International Justice Mission as well as a passerby who happened to sign the petition at the beckoning of a friend.  The story excludes the voices of anyone against their standpoint or who views sex trafficking in a different way.  Lastly, the article seems to emphasize how little awareness there is on Ball State University's campus in regards to sex trafficking - especially in relation to within Indiana.

I was surprised that the Daily News found this topic to be as salient as they did.  It was placed above other, heavier BSU topics such as JJH's resignation or the Outstanding Senior Award.  Part of me believes that the Daily News's current agenda is to get us to think about our University's study organizations who are doing great things and to think less about some drama going on with our administration.

Side note: Before I started working on this project again, I was actually at the Stand for Freedom.  Here's a fun picture of me power-pointing and trying to act tough.

Cultivation

Max Browning
April 8, 2015
Observation 7

When I am at home, I love to watch Investigation Discovery's shows about murder and other violent acts.  My favorite shows are the ones that involve family and newlywed homicides - something about them is super interesting!  On the flip side of my viewing habits, I have realized that I am less comfortable being alone in my house downstairs and constantly feel as though I am being watched (my house has a significant amount of windows).  When the rest of my family goes to bed, I call for my dog to be in the room with me, I lock all of the doors and close all of the blinds.  Something about watching these crime shows has made me fearful that it could happen to me.

This is exactly what the Cultivation Theory would predict occur.  Because the media has shown me a constant stream of violent acts on the television, I am more fearful that they will happen to me.  The cultivation theory is all about how violence in the media cultivates this fear in us; however, they do not make me more likely to commit violent acts, according to the theory.  These shows have given me an inflated perception of how often homicides occur and how often other forms of violent crimes happen to everyday people.

One piece of the Cultivation Theory that I found to fit into my scenario is the inflated perception of police activity.  After all of my Investigation Discovery binging, I truly do think that police are always out there looking for wrongdoers and trying to help out the good guys; however, I also have seen many shows where the good guys are the ones who are wrongly apprehended.

On the contrary, I under predicted the number of violent acts in Delaware County.  I think this may have to do with the fact that I do not watch television when I am in Muncie and therefore I feel safer and less threatened when I am here.

Cultural Studies

Max Browning
April 10, 2015
Observation 6

Last fall during the Ebola scare that swept across the nation, I kept up decently well with the media outlets and how they were in regards to everything.  Media outlets were keeping everyone informed about where the virus had been confirmed along with any potential cases that were popping up.  Additionally, they were working to ensure that all citizens knew the proper protection from the Ebola virus along with how it could spread and what it would do.  On the contrary, my Facebook feed was full of non-creditable sources that seemed to be only spreading fear to everyone.  My friends enjoyed sharing the articles about how catastrophic Ebola is in Africa and how long it would take to spread to Muncie, Indiana.

According to the Cultural Studies theory, media outlets serve as a filter through which media is disseminated.  This helps to protect the status quo.  For example, because so many news sources shared information regarding how it can spread between people, Americans were fearful of the Ebola virus and its potential to become an epidemic across the nation.  Journalists would talk about the expert opinions on the subject and all of the harm the virus could do to our country, yet they never reached out to any experts with opinions that differed from the norm.  Every expert seemed to agree that the Ebola virus was going to spread across the country and kill us all; therefore, that is what everyone seemed to believe.  It seems to me that someone, somewhere wanted the American people to think that this Ebola virus was going to be detrimental to the nation.  With how relatively little damage the virus actually did, I find it extremely difficult to believe that every single expert predicted the catastrophic nature of the virus wrong, but not only wrong, but completely opposite.

Semiotics

Max Browning
April 8, 2015
Observation 5

Recently Miracle Network Dance Marathon underwent a major rebranding.  You can watch this one minute video to gain a better insight into the rebrand that I will be talking about.

The Miracle Network Dance Marathon team decided that it was time to unify the international Dance Marathon network under a single symbol.  To do this, they took the traditional Children's Miracle Network Hospitals balloon and simply flipped the top and bottom pieces of the balloon to create a flame.  This flame is now the logo for over 250 University dance marathons throughout the United States and Canada.

The CMN Hospitals balloon is one of the most recognizable charitable logos nationwide.  On the surface, it signifies that the item it is on is a part of Children's Miracle Network Hospitals - it is simply a logo; however, the second degree meaning is much deeper.  The logo stands as a symbol that it takes children going through difficult times and it allows them to soar to new levels.  The balloon is a sign that Children's Miracle Network Hospitals is the channel through which a sick child is able to defy all odds.

Now, the Youth Marketing Team of CMN Hospitals has rebranded this balloon (signifying the network of hospitals) and turned it into a flame for the Miracle Network Dance Marathons.  This new signifier signifies, on the surface, the light of hope given to all children and families being treated at CMN Hospitals, but it means more.  Connotatively, this flame signifies an eternal light that shines within all of us to change the world and shed light on the path of someone else.  Together, this flame is a sign that everyone in at a Miracle Network Dance Marathon is working to change the world for the children who are currently fighting, who have won their fight and who are forever dancing in our hearts.

Narrative

Max Browning
April 10, 2015
Observation 4

Last summer, I was the lead presenter at the National Dance Marathon Leadership Conference.  I was asked to speak about the importance of telling stories when trying to break any misconceptions pertaining to a Dance Marathon event.  During this speech, I chose to show how I break misconceptions by telling the conference about why I have decided to be involved with Dance Marathon.  I explained to everyone at the conference that their greatest recruitment and retention tool was the stories they had to tell to their campus about the impact their marathon is making on their local hospital and about the impact the marathon is making on their daily lives.

My goal in this speech was to create a paradigm shift in the listeners by making them recreate their view of the world.  The Narrative theory states that humans are not motivated by arguments, but rather good reasoning; therefore, it makes sense that we tell stories to explain our reasoning instead of arguments to show merit.  During my speech, I presented some basic science associated with story telling; however, what sticked with the audience and persuaded their judgements on my topics the story that I told the story.

When I crafted my story, I had to make sure that it had both coherency (the story seemed probable to occur) and fidelity (it seemed to be true).  Even though I only picked bits and pieces of the story to talk about, I had to make sure that each piece of the story connected to the previous one and did not leave out any necessary details to transition from one section to the next.  According to the theory, "the world is a set of stories from which we choose to recreate our lives."  When I retold my story, I was choosing the important parts of the story that I wanted to define that part of my life.

Muted Group

Max Browning

April 10, 2015

Observation 3

Before I was a communication major, I studied Math Education which is a gender role nightmare.  When it came to math classes, men were expected to succeed, but when it came to the education classes, we were expected to keep our mouths shut.  This created an interesting dynamic that led to me changing my major; however, in the math classes, it was very uncommon for women to speak up in classes.  The professors were predominantly male and clearly had a bias towards the male students.  They would often treat the female students with less respect and mock their questions.

For the muted group theory to take place it is important to note that the women in the class were not silenced, but rather muted.  They still were completely able to communicate with the class and professor; however, their opinions and comments were not taken as seriously because they were female.  I think that many of the males in the class began to cringe when a female classmate would raise her hand because we assumed that the comment would not be productive (usually she would pose a question from five steps behind).  In order for a woman's comment to be respected, she would have to prove herself multiple times throughout the semester and gain her male classmates respect.  Additionally, it would be expected that she communicated in a logical manner free of any feelings or tag questions.  In a logic and numerically driven field, we did not care how she felt about the topic, but rather the methodology behind her comments.  Because many females ended their comments with a tag question, it was difficult for most of the class to respect the comment.  If she was not confident in her ideas, then no one found it necessary to listen or take it seriously, you know?

Cognitive Dissonance

Max Browning
April 8, 2015
Observation #2

On February 25th at 11:17 PM I was studying for my Argumentation and Debate class when I was surprised by the past year's president to tell me that I was the new president of Ball State University Dance Marathon.  While this should have been an amazing time in my life, the past year's executives kept mentioning that they were surprised that I did not happier.

Side note: I do not really show excitement.

Anyways, I was really just terrified.  I had gone to my interview and they drilled me with questions pertaining to problems they saw in my personality and leadership styles.  They made me defend every decision that I had made in the past two years and then told me why they disagreed.

This brought me a lot of dissonance as I felt as though I should be proud of my new position, but at the same time I felt as though I was not ready for the position.  This was the largest decision that I had made in my life to date and it created a deep need for reassurance.  The theory helps to clarify important decisions as those that are difficult to reverse and that had more time to past.  Becoming president of Dance Marathon is completely irreversible unless I were to step down which would put the entire organization at a disservice.  Likewise, the decision had been made over the past two and a half years.

It was not until I received more reassurance from my friends and family that I became confident in my ability to lead the organization (over 100 text messages in the first hour alone).  After all of the reassurance, I felt less dissonance about my decision.  I did not like the tension so I thoroughly enjoy now being able to make sense of everything.

Elaboration Likelihood Model

Max Browning
April 8, 2015
Observation #1

I am currently in an Argumentation and Debate class for my major.  During this class, we have had to participate in and observe multiple debates involving the demilitarization of local law enforcement agencies.  Throughout these debates, we are required to flow the debate and note the arguments that we find most appealing and persuasive before deciding on who we believe has won the debate; however, I do not really care about the militarization of local law enforcement.  Because of this, I was forced to base my decision on peripheral aspects of the debate such as how many arguments I heard, how well the people spoke, and how the debaters presented themselves instead of basing my decision on the merit of their arguments.

This situation shows the theory of the Elaboration Likelihood Model and its idea that there are two routes we use when trying to persuade others.  The central route is the ideal route to take as it leads to longterm changes in opinion; however, the peripheral route is more often used and leads to short-term changes in mindset.  In this situation, the debaters were hoping to appeal to central route of persuasion, but this would require two separate conditions to be met: that I am able to process the arguments and that I am motivated to process the arguments.  Though I was able to process the arguments, I was by no means motivated to listen to their persuasive efforts.

As is stated in the theory, this led me to turn to the peripheral method of being persuaded.  Since I was not listening to the merit of the arguments, I was forced to turn to more superficial means of persuasion.  This did not result in a longterm change in my opinion towards the matter, but rather a short-term decision that was made and soon forgotten about.  I preferred one side because they were easier to understand and seemed to present more arguments; however, I cannot actually remember which side I chose to vote for.

Uncertainty Reduction Theory

Observation #10

February 25, 2015

Uncertainty Reduction Theory

A week ago I took my second little brother through my fraternity.  Tonight we sat in the study lounge of DeHority to get to know each other a little better.  We have known each other for about a month now and I feel like we have really gotten through most of the awkward getting to know you stages of our friendship; however, there are still many things that we do not know about each other.  For example, tonight he told me a story about why he decided to go Greek and disclosed a lot of private information that he had only told one other brother.  This story went on for quite awhile and all the time I simply let him speak without ever getting a turn to say much.

We talked about Uncertainty Reduction Theory being useful towards three types of people.  I believe the main reason that my little and I are trying to reduce our uncertainty towards each other involves the fact that I will clearly see him again and we can anticipate future interactions.  In our interactions tonight, we can look at several axioms to create several theorems from the theory as well.

First, it is necessary to resolve that uncertainty reduced between myself and my little.  According to the theory, one axiom states that verbal communication should therefore go up.  We can note this increase by realizing that we were meeting in person to chat with each other the night before my blog posts were due.  Also during this time, my little self disclosed some personal information that he had not told other people.  This follows axiom four from the theory.  Lastly, axiom five stated that as uncertainty decreased, so would our reciprocity during communication.

Combining these axioms allows us to create theories.  For example, as my little disclosed information about himself to me, our reciprocity dropped as he was allowed to tell his story without me budging in to make a comment or ask a question.

Social Judgement Theory

Observation #9
February 24, 2015
Social Judgement Theory

Growing up Catholic, I hear a lot of arguments against same sex marriage.  People around me say that homosexuals go to hell and that the Bible condemns same sex relationships, yet I believe that same sex couples deserve the same respect and dignity that heterosexual couples deserve.  A few months ago, I heard it said that same sex attraction was a biological malfunction and that it should not be acted upon, but it is not in itself a sin.  This notion that people who suffer from same sex attraction should be degraded because of a biological difference still baffles me and pushes me more into agreeing with idea that same sex couples should be allowed marriage rights.

I think that the first thing that I have to do when talking about same sex marriage is to realize that I have a very small latitude of acceptance and non commitment, yet two large latitudes of rejection of both sides.  My acceptance in equal marriage rights stems from the economic and societal benefits of being classified as married.  In today's society, partners in a civil union cannot see each other in the hospital or receive tax benefits as can married couples.  Because of the research and benefits and I have learned about marriage, I am able to see marriage beyond the scope of a close-minded Catholic who only sees marriage as a sacred bond.  In fact, I also see eye-to-eye with the Catholic church; therefore, my anchor lies on the idea that marriage equality is fine, but same sex couples should not be married in a church.

When I first hear an opinion, I judge its distance from this stance and then decide how I will react to it.  This reaction is ultimately gauged by a shift in my anchor towards or away from the idea.  More often than not, people will state ideas that are in my latitude of rejection and therefore cause me to shift my anchor further away from whatever point they are trying to prove.  This boomerang effect happens because the suggestion is not on the cusp of non commitment, yet still in my acceptance range, but instead falls within my rejection region.

Social Information Processing Theory

Observation #8
February 24, 2015
Social Information Processing Theory

I think that everything on Tinder can be explained by the Social Information Processing Theory, but there is this one girl on Tinder who I have have been talking to for about two weeks now.  She goes to Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne so I have really no way of communicating with her face-to-face right now and so Tinder is really all we have; however, I do believe that we are moving pretty steadily.  Within these two weeks I have learned quite a bit about her, but it is nice because I am able to respond to her questions when I am free and she can then respond to me when she finds time.  Additionally, I probably smudge the truth a bit when talking to her (oops) so that she will think that I am a little bit better than I am (running really does sound like a great concept and I am sure I would do it if we ever met and she liked running).

According to the Social Information Processing Theory, my relationship with this girl will progress about four times as slow as a normal relationship because it lacks nonverbal clues; however, I believe that the asynchronous nature of Tinder allows for a nonverbal clue not found in face-to-face interactions.  Since she is able to respond at her own convenience, I can gauge how engaged she is in the conversation based on how quickly she responds after I say something.  There are times when we will be talking and it will be going great, but then there are other times when there will be a sudden, unexplained pause from one of us.

Additionally, because I do not have to see her, it is easier to select the self that I wish to present to her.  Sometimes I get into a pickle when I bring up that I used to run cross country - I have not ran cross country in about seven years now, but it still seems applicable in so many conversations when people bring up working out.  There is something in me that always wants to run, but until these opportunities to present myself in this light arise, the part of me that wants to run is always overshadowed.

Symbolic Convergence

Observation #7
February 24, 2015
Symbolic Convergence

I served as Director of Stewardship this year for Ball State University Dance Marathon.  There were twenty-one other members on the executive council.  Each Wednesday, we would meet for our weekly exec meetings and they would typically last around two hours.  Each meeting began with a question to get to know everyone a little better.  These questions could range anywhere from our power song to our goals for the year, but the only thing we all knew when we went into the question was that it would get extremely off topic.

Even though our exec meetings each week were geared towards discussing goals and ideas for our upcoming weeks until the marathon, we would often discuss during these meetings things that would never actually happen.  For example, we would spend ten minutes discussing multiple ways that we might get recognition from John Green or Ellen Degeneres, yet we all realized that the likelihood of this happening was zero.  Though these were off topic, the theory of Symbolic Convergence notes that these group chains allowed the group to come together.  It later became a running joke that whenever we would try to discuss an idea, we would try to figure out how it could tie in to our overarching dream of attracting attention from Ellen (we never did).

Even though we all knew that these discussions about getting Ellen to come to our marathon would get us nowhere, we still continued to have them.  I think that at the end of the day, this fantasy drew us together because it kept our mind off of the stress of our positions for awhile and allowed us to see where we all wanted this marathon to go.  We knew that Ellen was not a realistic possibility, but through dreaming to have Ellen at our marathon, I think that we were able to bring some great people like President Paul Ferguson and current Miss Indiana to our marathon.

Interactional View

Observation #6
February 24, 2015
Interactional View

I briefly described this situation in class, but basically I have come to accept a sequence of events in my family.  When I come home for breaks, my family likes to ask if I have changed my major yet (I have a history of changing it a lot).  When they realize that I have not changed my major, my mom complains that I never call home, then my brother complains that I have downgraded from my initial major of Actuarial Science.  I am not sure who decided that my happiness should not be considered in how good a major is for me, but I bite my tongue and play along anyways.  He is a third year law school student anyways, so he clearly knows more than me about life.

This is a game that my family likes to play.  When I come home, I already know the sequence of questions I will be asked along with my stock answers to every question.  The rules have been set from day one.  I once tried to rock the boat and give a response that would be unexpected, but it was reprimanded and I have since gone back to my usual responses.  This is how my family operates.  We have a certain family homeostasis in our family and I have been pegged as the child who will not stand up for himself or rebel.  This made it extremely difficult for me to defend my decision to change to a Math Education major during my freshman year and now makes it difficult to defend my decision to change to an Org. Comm major.

We talked about how the only way to break the family homeostasis is through metacommunication, but I do not think that this will ever work with my family.  I am not extremely close with my family and it still feels awkward when they want to have a group hug or chat about life.  I can only imagine the awkwardness that would ensue if we ever decided to look at the problems within our family's dynamic and work to break away from them.

Relational Dialectics

Observation #5
February 23, 2015
Relational Dialectics

As you have probably learned by now, Meagan and I are pretty close friends outside of the Communication Theory class.  I really appreciate Meagan and I's friendship because she is a spontaneous person, which is something that I would not consider myself.  Her spontaneity really shines when she gets bored.  This is when she suggests some pretty bizarre ideas (usually involving food).  For example, usually when we get lunch after this class, she suggests the Atrium since we do not have to go outside; however, on rare occasions she likes to spice up the lunch and suggest we go to Noyer.  While I thoroughly appreciate her trying to switch it up, we still usually go to the Atrium since it is cold outside.

This relates to Relational Dialectics with an internal dialectic tension.  Specifically, this situation responses to the tension between stability and change.  In this case, Meagan and I keep our stability of always getting lunch together on Wednesday and Friday after our Communication Theory; however, we still want to change our location from time to time.  This is an important balance in Meagan and I's relationship.  She enjoys keeping things more stable for me, yet I enjoy letting her change things about the lunch from time to time.  This interruption in stability allows our friendship to keep going and growing.  I prefer to know what to expect each Wednesday and Friday after class; however, I still want to have some sort of surprise.

Relational Dialectics suggests that this balance between change and stability is what keep Meagan and I's friendship afloat.  If we were to remove Meagan's spontaneity for change, then we would get bored with the same routine.  If we were to remove my preference for stability, then we would lose any consistency in our friendship and grow aggravated when we ran out of new things to do.

Social Penetration Theory

Observation #4
February 1, 2015
Social Penetration Theory

In September of my freshman year, one of the girls I had just met at the beginning of the year asked me about my love life before we watched a movie.  I felt extremely uncomfortable and basically just said that I was single; however, in the month that I had known her, we had talked extensively about the similarities and differences between our high schools.  Our two schools were considered "sister schools," yet neither of us really knew anything about the other's school until these discussions took place.  We would talk about our school policies, demographics, grading systems and diversity in great details, yet when my friend asked me about my love life, I wasn't having it.

According to the social penetration theory, each topic in our life has a certain breadth and depth on which we are willing to discuss it with people.  In this case, I was willing to talk with my friend in great breadth and depth about our high schools.  The breadth was wide because we talked about schooling in a variety of contexts, yet the depth was great because we did not stop at the surface of these topics, but continued further into the topics.  On the other hand, the breadth and depth of the conversation about my love life was almost nonexistent.  I would not tell her about past romances, current love life, or future hopes for my romances.

In this case, I was not willing self disclose much with my friend.  According to the social penetration theory, self disclosure leads to intimacy when it is gradual, orderly, and reciprocal.  I think that part of my lack in depth dealt with the non-gradual process that my friend tried to talk about my love life.  There was no gradual questions about who I was seeing or anything along those lines, but she jumped straight to asking me about my entire love life.  Also, it was not reciprocal in that she was only asking  for my love life, but never gave me any insight into her own.

Expectancy Violations Theory

Observation #3
February 1, 2015
Expectancy Violation Theory

I think that most of my friendship with Meagan can be explained by the Expectancy Violations Theory.  Today when she came to my room to talk about schoolwork, instead of saying, "Hello Max, how has your day been?" she sat on my lap and licked my face.  Also, she did not knock before coming into my room, but rather just walked in without notice.  Despite these strange behaviors,

According to the Expectancy Violations Theory, how we predict something to occur is based on context, relationship, and communicator characteristics.  In order to understand how the Expectancy Violations Theory explains my response to Meagan's unexpected behavior, we have to understand Meagan and I's friendship.  Meagan and I really only became friends in December after she started dating my soon to be housemate.  Since then, we have become extremely close- to the point where let down a lot of our guard while around each other.

The Expectancy Violations Theory includes a one to two step sequence to determine how someone will react to an unexpected violation of social norms.  The first step tells us to look at the violation itself.  In this case, I will look into Meagan licking my face (though the same sequence could be used to determine my reaction to her charging into my room).  Normally, someone licking my face will yield a negative remark in my mind; however, physical touch is my secondary love language so it makes sense that it might be more ambiguous.  Since the behavior is not always bad or always good, we move onto the second step - communicator reward valence.  In this case, we have to look at my perception of Meagan.  Because I see Meagan as a friend and not as a potential threat, I was able to perceive her strange actions in a positive light.

Coordinated Management of Meaning

Observation #2
January 26, 2015
Coordinated Management of Meaning

In January of 2014 I was taken to the emergency room of Ball Memorial Hospital on the first day of classes after a Staph infection caused my finger to double in size.  After a minor operation to remove the infection from my finger, I spent the next two days in a hand wrap and the next two months constantly changing hand bandages as my finger finally closed into the cross shaped scar that remains still today.  Over these two months, people constantly questioned the purpose of the bandages.

With every answer, I had to walk the fine line of telling people the exact story of what happened to my finger while also leaving out many of the more disturbing details of the situation.  For example, my story lived includes the fact that my finger had been causing me pain for about a week prior to the incident and I only went to the emergency room when my neighbor saw that the infection was oozing out of an opening; however, I do thoroughly enjoy over-exaggerating the oozing as more of an explosion.  Because of this, I lacked successful management of my story lived with my story told.

In addition to my use of hyperboles and exclusion of details, I am unable to explain the feelings that went through my head throughout the operation.  For example, I often tell people that it was extremely painful and that I was fairly calm throughout the process (I am not at all afraid of having a finger amputated), but I struggle to express the humor of the overall situation.  The story of lived consisted of a sassy nurse who stepped back from the operation because my blood was spurting out of my wound and a doctor who kept commenting on how excited he was to cut my finger open.

Symbolic Interactionism

Observation #1
January 25, 2015
Symbolic Interactionism

I have this friend; I'll call her Julie.  When Julie speaks, she speaks loudly.  As a quieter individual, I prefer to not draw attention to myself, but when I am with Julie, that becomes nearly impossible as she seemingly screams as loud as she can during mundane conversations.  This overwhelming quality of Julie immediately caused me to dislike her and find her extremely annoying.  On the other hand, the other members in my friend group find her lovable and friendly; therefore, I am around her far more often than I would desire.

Despite my friend group encouraging me to look past her loud, egotistical exterior, I find it extremely difficult to look past the initial labels I placed upon Julie.  In our text, it is said that "humans act toward people or things on the basis of the meanings they assign to those people things" (55).  When I assigned terms such as "loud" and "annoying" to Julie, I became overly aware of these character traits in her.  When she wished me a merry Christmas, I saw it as a fake attempt to win my friendship.  My friends, on the other hand, see her more like a lost puppy looking for a group to call her family.  Though my friends and I interact with Julie together, they interpret her actions differently than myself.

In our discussion of Mead, we discussed the relations between meaning, language and thought.  In particular, we discovered that thought modifies meaning.  When my friends hear about Julie, they have thoughts of how friendly she is and become happy.  When I hear about Julie, I quickly become annoyed and only think about how loud she is.  It is important to note; however, that Julie is not inherently any of these qualities, but rather our terms to describe her relative to others.  To my friends, Julie may not be as loud as most of the people they know, but to me, she is one of the loudest people I know.  Through symbolic interaction, my friends and I have come to our own interpretations of Julie.  It does not matter who the real Julie is, because our interpretations each have their own real consequences on how we act towards her.


Bonus Content:  My junior year, we had to write a "Who am I" essay.  I thought this tied in with our opening activity that day extremely well!

Who am I?  I am Smacky Browning.  I am a statistic.  I am more.  To me, I am many.  To you, I am one.  The life I live is short, but the impact I make is long.

I am a seeker of knowledge.  I am a student.  I know statistics.  I am a statistic.

I am Max, but I am not your dog.  I have the most common dog name.  I am not your buddy - that is the third.  That was a statistic. I am a statistic.  Therefore, I am that.

I am now.  I am the present.  I am the poorly wrapped gift held sentimentally by some.  I live for the future.  In the future, my present will be a statistic of the past.  I am a statistic.

I am here.  Turn around.  Ninety-five percent of people just turned around.  You are a statistic.  I too am a statistic.

I am a writer.  I am a friend.  I am a comedian.  I am German.  I am sitting in a chair.  Americans sit in chairs more than Germans.  I am a statistic.

I am orange.  I am a finely tuned mixture of anger and joy.  My favorite color is orange.  I am my favorite color.  Some call me narcissistic.  I am a statistic.

I am easily annoyed.  I am easily annoyed.  I repeat for emphasis.  My computer can copy and paste.  I am a statistic.  I copied that sentence from above.

I am I.  I am the nominative singular pronoun. I am the ninth letter of the alphabet. Am? No, is.  I know the alphabet.  I comes before you, but I do not come before you.  You are a statistic, but I am a statistic.  Therefore, I am you.

I am bored.  I am doing homework.  Homework is boring.  The connection is obvious.  I am obvious.  I am black and white.  No, I am orange.  No, I am a statistic.

I am short.  I am lazy.  No longer will they call me a statistic.  I am a stat.

I am redundant.  I am repetitious.  I am excessive.  I am extra.  I am wordy.  I am reiterating.   I am the 13,312,165th person to search in dictionary.com today.  I am a stat.

I am me.  I am the key.  I am free.  I am rhyming.  I am a bee.  I am black and yellow.  I am now singing.  That is a popular song. No, I am orange.  I am a stat.

I am a victim.  Procrastination and addiction fight me to the death.  Thank you, Facebook.  You made a stat.  I am a stat.

I am a nerd.  I know math.  I am imaginary.  No, i is imaginary.  Therefore, I am not a statistic.