Gender and Communication

Communication is the backbone of human existence. Without it we would be nothing more than organized matter. It has allowed us to grow, learn, build, and survive. The fact that our species has managed to develop advanced methods of communication, such as language, is what has set us aside from other animals. When we talk to another person we are sending a message which is received, decoded, and responded to accordingly. Communication depends on relationships between the people who are communicating, and on common basics between them. Problems in communications between people usually arise due to differences in cultures, perceptions, values, and/ or expectations they may have from life. Communication is definitely more difficult this day in age because we 're not always talking directly to each other. Computers and instant messengers have caused people to become more distant in their communication process. Also we have the difficulty of only reading what people are saying to us instead of hearing the intonation of what they say. Communication is an ongoing, transactional process in which individuals exchange messages whose meanings are influenced by the history of the relationship and the experiences of the participants. (Adler, p.384) As in many other gender differences, miscommunications between males and females can be explained by either the biological aspect or the cultural/environmental aspect. Deborah Tannen, a University professor of linguistics at Georgetown University and an Author, suggests the biological explanation to be the problem: "Sometimes when you are talking to someone from other gender, it is like you are talking to someone from another world," when she was talking about communications between opposite genders. That is the main reason why girls and boys prefer to play with their own sex. A research, made by her, shows the differences in friendships between two best-friends (girls), and that of two best-friends (boys) in ages five, ten

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