#1: Effective Communication Skills

I don’t need to start thinking about how effective I am at communicating at a professional level before I can conclude that my communication skills need improvement. Already in my everyday social life, I often find myself in situations where is misunderstandings and confusion due to poor communication, causing me (and the other party involved) much needless irritation or frustration.
Boo, to me!

They say students in Engineering aren’t as vocal or eloquent as those in the Arts… Such sweeping statements should seriously be condemned, but honestly (and embarrassingly) for me, it is true. My friends often laugh at me (jokingly, of course) being so animated because I like to use a lot of sound effects and gestures when I talk about something.
“… then it tiewwwww and after that chibabooh! …”
The underlying explanation is that I always seem to somehow be unable to express my thoughts and intentions in words.
Boo, to me!

While communication has the non-verbal aspect to it, verbal communication is crucial for good communication. I mean, in social settings with friends, my manner of communication is OK, but I can’t imagine tiewww-ing and chibabooh-ing to my project supervisor or my future boss. The message that I would have like to bring across just won’t be appropriate or credible.
Boo, to me!

With my FYP at hand and one year to graduation, it may have been much easier to choose a module that is less demanding in workload. But upon reading the synopsis of this module, (as first ‘advertised’ to me in our NUS mail) I thought it would be really useful to acquire effective communication skills “…in writing and orally” (as stated in the module synopsis).
Yay, to me!

Post #0: Social Media and Me

So this is blog post #0 simply because this is not post #1 (in which I would have to write about why I need/want effective communication skills). Instead, given the unusual rubrics for this ES2007S module, here’s some really brief thoughts on social media... And me.

Frankly, I think I am averse to the use of social media (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Youtube). Having to figure my way through the various tabs for the seemingly millions of functions/applications in Facebook, or browse through the Twits and Blog posts of friends somehow muddles my mind. I prefer things to be simpler. (This implies that I consider that the increase in social networking avenues as making life more complicated… which definitely can be argued against, but this is just what I think.) To me, I can get by with written notes, emails, phone calls or instant messages to arrange gatherings or to keep each other in the loop about things. Real Time Information isn’t necessary for me. Thus, it took me a few years before friends could convince me to get a Facebook account. In fact, it was only when I was about to go for SEP last semester that I started using Facebook so that I can keep my family and friends updated with my life, and mine with theirs.

And right now, I am blogging. I log onto Facebook almost every other day. I am taking a module that urges me to blog and to be active on Facebook. Plus, I just got myself an iPhone two weeks ago, allowing me to do all that on-the-go, and get Real Time Information. (Even though I am still learning how to do so and following that, get used to it without feeling disoriented.)

 Social communication/interaction is fast relying extensively on social media. Almost everyone uses Facebook, Youtube, Instant Messaging or blogs. I am progressively using more forms of social media, not because I am blindly conforming to society, but rather, I believe that I am engaging myself with society! It is difficult and confusing (for me, at least), but participating in the use of social media presents to me opportunities to reap its numerous benefits… Benefits so numerous that I think it will take me another blog post to list and elaborate.

And so… Until another time.