Communication—— the essential element that defines "human"

By：Zheng HaoYuan（John）

We can imagine a world where everyone is isolated from each other, and when individuals are cut off from any interaction with the outside world, then communication will cease to exist, and we will try to depict a world without communication by the role of communication, without which information cannot be exchanged, then everything we have will cease to exist, and human beings will degenerate to a stage where they cannot be called human. Because communication is the basis on which the idea of a "human being" is created. I used to think that we communicate as long as we want to communicate, and that any communication is purposeful and controlled by our consciousness. But what I failed to realize was that we often communicate without purpose, and sometimes without any hope of communication. Whether we engage in interaction or not, we must respond in some way. Even if we choose not to react verbally, even if we remain absolutely silent and try to remain motionless, our "lack of reaction" is itself a reaction and conveys a message that influences others and thus facilitates communication, i.e., we cannot voluntarily stop communicating because communication is not There is no end to communication. When the world is free of communication, then we cannot be defined as "human". I really like what the Chinese science fiction writer said in "Three Bodies": A world without communication would be flat, and only communication and cooperation would bring about the flourishing of civilization as a whole. This is true in the field of humanities and in other fields as well.

When I was imagining what a world without communication would be like, I thought of a quote from communication guru Schramm: "Without communication, there would be no community; without community, there would be no communication." People do not live in a vacuum without people or things. All interactions that individual human beings have with the outside world are communication, and must form communities that in turn affect themselves. In the period of primitive society, when the changes in the objective world concerned the survival of mankind, the social production and social life of mankind determined the need for man to engage in communication activities. The changing social conditions give rise to an increase in the closeness of human social interaction, and the social demand for communication increases, and the increase in demand forces people to expand the scale of communication activities and expand the content of communication.

1. "Rhetrical" communication process is one-way, ignoring feedback and external influencing factors. 5W model is a purposeful behavior process, persuasion process. Example: Take the advertising slogan of Cold Sour toothpaste as an example.

Its advertising slogan is: Hot and cold, sweet and sour, eat as much as you want. Cold Sour Spirit toothpaste.

According to 5W it can be concluded that

Who : advertising company

What is said : Hot, cold, sweet and sour, eat as much as you want. Cold and sour toothpaste.

Through what channel : TV

To whom : the majority of consumers

Achieved what effect : to attract the attention of consumers, may improve sales

2. Semiotic：The discipline underlying branding is communication, the discipline underlying communication is semiotics, and the discipline underlying semiotics is psychology.

There are three kinds of symbols: 1. natural symbols; 2. public rule symbols 3. cultural symbols.

     Let's take the public rule symbols as an example:

The traffic light is a typical public rule symbol. When we see a traffic signal, we know that the light is red to stop and green to go. This is typical of the role of psychology.

Steve Jobs applied the traffic light symbology to the interface design,Let even the first time mac users know that the red, yellow and green buttons function. This is an application based on symbology.

    3. Phenomenological：I think phenomenology addresses this situation: a thing that you can know, see, and recognize, but you don't gain deeper, more valuable knowledge.Not all the information we are exposed to is neutral information, and much of it is purposefully generated and disseminated, and the source stream of information is artificially and intentionally framed by certain forces. At this time we simply to study the information is difficult to see.

      Example: There is a Chinese allusion to quenching thirst by looking at plums. When you look at a plum forest, your thirst is quenched by the flow of saliva

     4. Cybernetic：I think the nature of cybernetics is because of the source of interference, which makes the message lose and creates a certain degree of distortion until it reaches the receiver, a message that is no longer the same as the one originally sent.

        Example:At a family gathering, I said cheers to a friend, and my friend noticed me looking at a chair not far away and handed it to me.

      5. Sociocultural：Reinforcing social order through reproduction then it must be the mass media.

          Example: Newspaper, radio, television and other media

       6.Critical：In this model the sender of the message takes into account all aspects, and the receiver of the message receives different messages due to different conditions and circumstances.

            Example: TikTok will push different short videos according to users' preferences, the country they live in, and the relevant national laws and regulations they are subject to.