Week 3: Post #3

3). Pick one concept from the assigned reading that you found useful or interesting and discuss it.

Intentionality really struck a chord with me from Chapter two.  I found myself thinking about all of the times I have gotten into an argument because of intentionality.  Let me explain.  I think intentionality is one of the most problematic areas of communication because it takes on a life of it own.  It can be most often a problem when communicating non-verbally.  This means the frown you make when your mom says your having meatloaf again will likely offend and upset her, even if you didn't mean for it to.  The problem with intentionality is that there is no way to make a sure bet on it.  You never know for sure if the message sender meant to send out that message, regardless if the message is out there or not.  It is intentionality that takes on the burden of implicit and explicit messages.  If we only received explicit messages, we would definitely have a better understanding of each other.  Unfortunately we are a bit smarter than that, but we have to deal with the pitfalls of intentionality.