Assessment : Social Network profile
1. In what way is your profile page a package of signals? In what ways do the varied
words and pictures combine to communicate meaning?
Answer: My profile serves as a package of signals through the different posts, pictures,
thoughts, updates I post and share. Through those shares and updates, people can
understand me better as a person as they really reflect my opinions, point of views,
beliefs, principles and who I am as a person. From information about myself to updates
of my day to day activities to events I engage in and posts I share, they all together
convey what kind of person I am and how much I am committed to the things I believe
in. My profile pictures, the regularity with which I use Facebook and post stuffs, they
also convey how much social I am. In my profile as I have maintained the privacy to
most of the things and only made certain things accessible to even my friend, that also
conveys the message of how much I’m readily able to share about myself. My profile
also conveys the image I want the people to perceive me as or at least helps me to avert
the image I don’t want to be perceived as, thus helps me to build and manage the image
or impression I want people to have about me. Besides, people might also find
familiarity and meaning in the posts I share in their own different way with their
perspective and find meaning in their own interesting ways. Hence my profile serves as
a package of signals to convey the understanding of my nature and personality.
2. Can you identify and distinguish between content and relational messages?
Answer: Content message and relational message are different, however, together they
work to convey a better meaning to the receiver about the message we want to deliver.
They are two dimensions of every communication transaction. Content message simply
refers to the actual information, the literal content, ideas or arguments being conveyed.
While Relational Messages are the indications of the nature of the relationship that
exists between the parties involved, the interactants’ status in the relationship or the
social context within which the interaction that occurs. Hence while content message
talks about the subject matter being discussed, relational message shows how the
parties feel about themselves, each other and their relationship. Content message are
the verbal or visible content of the message while relational message often involve nonverbal communication and are implicit and thus can be difficult to interpret and prone
to misunderstanding.
For example if I post an update expressing I had some really great time with my friends
on the weekend, the relational message could be that we should hang out more often
and spend some more quality time like that together.