Page 132 - Essentials of Human Communication

The Channels of Nonverbal Communication 111

CommUNiCatiNg ethiCallY

Communication Silence

In the U.S. legal system, although people have the right to remain silent so as not to incriminate themselves,
they are obliged to reveal information about, for example, the criminal activities of others that they may have ethical Choice Point
witnessed. However, rightly or wrongly (and this in itself is an ethical issue), psychiatrists, lawyers, and some With all this discussion of ethics in
clergy are often exempt from this general rule. Similarly, a wife can’t be forced to testify against her husband, nor communication, you now wonder if
a husband against his wife. you should come clean to your
Unlike the legal system, however, most day-by-day communication situations lack written rules, so it’s not steady dating partner of two years
always clear whether or when silence is ethical. For example, most people (though not all) would agree that about previous relationships and a
you have the right to withhold information that has no bearing on the matter at hand. Consider, for example, brief incarceration for robbery.
in what situations would it be ethical to remain silent about your previous relationship history, affectional orien- Would it be ethical to remain silent
tation, or religion, and in what situations silence would be unethical. about these past behaviors?

Generally, you’re more likely to voice your opinions when you agree with the majority
than when you disagree. You may do this to avoid being isolated from the majority or for fear
of being proved wrong or being disliked. Or you may simply assume that the majority, be-
cause they’re a majority, must be right.
As people with minority views remain silent, the majority position gets stronger (because
those who agree with it are the only ones speaking); so, as the majority position becomes
stronger and the minority position becomes weaker, the silence becomes an ever-widening
spiral. The Internet (blogs and social network sites, especially) may in some ways act as
a counteragent to the spiral of silence, because it provides so many
opportunities to express minority viewpoints (anonymously if you wish) and to quickly find
like-minded others (McDevitt, Kiousis, & Wahl-Jorgenen, 2003).

tIMe cOMMuNIcatION

The study of temporal communication, known technically as chronemics, concerns the use of
time—how you organize it, react to it, and communicate messages through it (Bruneau, 1985,
1990, 2010). Time is important in both face-to-face and computer-mediated communication.
The time you take to poke someone back on Facebook, or the time you take to respond to an
e-mail request for a favor, or the delay in returning a phone call will all communicate varied
messages. Often, as you have probably already discovered, the meanings that the sender
intends to communicate are not the same as the meanings the receiver constructs.

time Orientation Before reading further about time, take a look at your own time ori-
entation by taking the accompanying self-test.

teSt YoUrSelf

What’s Your time?
For each statement indicate whether the statement is true (T) or false (F) of your general attitude and behavior.
_____ ➊ I work hard today basically because of tomorrow’s expected rewards.
_____ ➋ I enjoy life as it comes.

_____ ➌ I enjoy planning for tomorrow and the future generally.
_____ ➍ I avoid looking too far ahead.