Monday, January 5, 2009
Distortion
The book defines distortion as the effects of noise on the recievers ability to process the message (pg. 29). This is a common thing that has happened to me many times. Recently my roomate called me and asked me if I wanted anything from McDonalds. I told him that I wanted a chicken mcnugget meal. Apparently our communication was distorted because he brought me back a happy meal. I was angry and amused at the same time. That was an example where the outcome was not bad but distortion can lead to bad things. I dont have an example for it though.
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That’s frustrating. Especially when you had an expectation and it wasn’t met. I actually had an experience today in my winter session class on campus. I was interviewing my partner. We were to ask questions to get to know them. The volume in the class slowly began to rise and we could barely hear each other. Needless to say he asked how many children I nannied for I said, “Twins. They’re my 5th set of twins that I have nannied for.” When he read it back to the class he said that I currently nanny for 5 sets of twins. Everyone looked at me like I had a third eye growing in on my forehead. Haha. Again, something minor but it was funny.
ReplyDeleteThat must have been a disappointment. I know how I feel when I’m expecting one thing, but instead got another. I can’t be mad at the person, because they were nice enough to pick something up for me, but nonetheless I’m disappointed that I didn’t receive the meal I really wanted.
ReplyDeleteDistortion happened to me the other day. I was trying to buy a coffee maker at the store. I had asked a sales person to help me, but he seemed rather flustered because my little girl was getting fussy and my mother was talking as well. My mother was looking through the boxes to make sure we were buying a unit that hadn’t been returned before. She noticed that a good way to tell was if the manual was on top in the spot designed for it in the box. There were several units that didn’t have it there. She decided to point this out to the salesman as a way to tell if something had been returned. He took it the wrong way and started carrying the coffee makers off the floor. He thought she meant since they’d been returned that they shouldn’t be sold at all. However, she was just letting him know her theory in case a customer in the future asked if an item had been returned before.
The experiences we have all make distortion an everyday event in our lives. Everyone seems to relate through common grounds because we all have an understanding or experience when communication is distorted. In this case at McDonalds it was a simple order that was misunderstood, why did he distort the message? Good communication is achieved if both parties have an understanding of the information. Next time send him a text so u have witten proof of what you wanted at McDonals
ReplyDeleteThis story is too funny. I can't help but think of the many times I've had such instances of miscommunication. However, distortion can also be the case of hearing what you want to hear or a subconscious way to rationalize information.
ReplyDeleteIt's a process, to be able to quiet the distortion in order to get an accurate translation of the original message.
In regards to the phone order, you might tell you buddy to clean his ears. ;p