On the limits of the process of communication and the central role of interpretation

Communication is about using symbols and in case of humans, using language, to convey meanings and ideas between individuals and it involves the act of evoking reactions from other individuals. Human communication is marked by intention and anticipation of the reactions and communication in humans can be verbal when mediated by language or non-verbal when no language is involved. Communication can also be direct when a certain pattern of behavior evokes a particular type of response or subtle and indirect when behaviors are not predictable or ambiguous and not even completely comprehensible. Thus communication is separated into certain distinct categories such as:

1. Direct and Indirect communication

2. Verbal and non-verbal communication

Any direct communication can be both verbal and non-verbal just as indirect communication can also be verbal or non verbal. Verbal communication can again be direct or indirect and similarly non verbal communication can also be either direct or indirect. So let's say there are four types of communication patterns in humans - verbal and direct, verbal and indirect, non-verbal and direct, non-verbal and indirect. Examples of verbal and direct would be saying things that are straightforward or unambiguous and with no hidden or incomprehensible messages. These are verbal expressions of emotions and ideas as they occur. Like when you are happy and say that you are happy, you are using the verbal direct method of communication to express your feelings. Indirect methods of verbal communication are using subtle expressions such as taunts, sarcasm, hints etc. that can have ambiguous meanings and do not represent expressions of emotions or ideas 'as they occur'. Thus if you are sad and do not say so but imply indirectly, then you are using indirect methods to convey your state of mind. Non verbal communication is about using cues, facial or bodily expressions, body language, eye or hand movements etc., to express ideas. This can be quite direct like say, hitting a person is rather non verbal but direct as it expresses anger just as crying represents sorrow. However non verbal communication can be indirect such as turning away your eyes from a person you feel uncomfortable with or maintaining prolonged eye contact with a person to convey a message.

Communication is the basis of human and non-human interaction and we can all communicate with a touch or a sound, a look or a symbol, a word or a sentence and also by doing or saying nothing at all. The body is an important interface in communication and I've discussed this in the psychology of body in which body language is shown to play an important role in communication. We communicate with our mates through intimate body language and sexual interaction is a very important communication tool in humans and also in animals. The psychology of communication will include the different elements or stages of communication in an individual such as

1. Absorption of external information through listening or reading etc,

2. Interpretation of the stimuli received, and

3. Reaction to the information obtained through behavior

The three stages of the communication process as in absorption or taking in information, the interpretation or deriving meaning of the information and reaction or responding to the information are facilitated by the following elements:

1. Absorption or taking in information - is through sense organs and we simply absorb the sounds and colors, the spoken words and all external data provided to us. Absorption is an objective process

2. Interpretation or analysis of information - involves using brain mechanisms and analyzing external stimuli as well as details such as expressions and subtle verbal and non verbal cues, so interpretation is a subjective process

3. Reaction or response to the stimuli - uses physical communication routes such as speech, language or expressions through facial and bodily movements. Reactions are the result of a subjective and an objective process. This is because when presented with certain stimuli we all have a set of predictable responses which are objective but depending on how we interpret the situation subjectively, the reactions might vary to an extent. Reactions can be imitative - you smile when you see someone smiling or it can be just the opposite as when someone tries to look at you and you try to look away.

This reaction or response evoked in an individual can become a stimulus for another chain of responses or the stimulus can be a completely separate event or situation. Behaviorists will usually consider communication as a stimulus-response pattern with individuals perceiving the stimuli and reacting to them in the form of communication. Freudian psychoanalysis suggests that communication is directly related to how we subjectively perceive the external information based on our own experiences. So 'interpretation' of external stimuli or the mediation of the individual mind is the most important aspect of communication according to psychoanalysis, although behaviorists will completely eliminate the importance of the 'interpretation' part considering communication as nothing but a series of mechanical 'stimulus-response' pattern. Thus according to behavioral psychology, we perceive an object and react to it via communication almost like a computer program. It sounds strange that the importance of mind and consciousness in communication has only been recently acknowledged in 'scientific' psychology.

The methods of communication are also equally interesting as humans communicate through the written word and the spoken word and through letters, messages, phone calls, personal face to face conversation, through glances and physical contact, through sex, and on a wider scale through seminars, conferences, news events, newspapers, press releases, books, brochures, and campaigning or propaganda. The newer methods of communication using information technology are via chats and chatrooms, internet and emails, text messages, forums, blogging and networking. Technology has opened up new avenues of communication and the world is now completely dependent on how far and how quickly people are able to communicate.

Communication is central to our modern life, yet it is a difficult and complicated process and a gap remains between the ideas communicated and the ideas perceived. This communication gap as it is generally called is closed only with proper consideration of all verbal, non verbal, indirect and direct elements of the communication process. So in a personal or business meeting the communication process involves not just presentation of the ideas of people verbally but also the non verbal facial and bodily expressions.

The purpose of communication is almost always motivated or intentional as we naturally expect a response from people we communicate with. In fact all communication is based on anticipation of response from others thus communication tend to have a direction or purpose. However the communication gap can create problems in the process and the purpose of communication may remain unfulfilled when communicated ideas are too vague or indirect. The vagueness increases when channels of communication between two or more individuals are remote or distal rather than proximal.

Long distance communication methods such as emails and internet, telephone calls etc. bring in new challenges to the study of communication as we are not able to see the person we communicate with, we find it difficult to 'interpret' the stimuli that we encounter. As I have noted in an earlier part of this discussion, the ability to 'interpret' the communicative stimuli is a very important part of the communicative process and the interpretation or derivation of the meaning of what we hear or see depends on our inherent need for analysis of all indirect body language cues, facial expressions and hints or subtle or subconscious processes. Human beings are intelligent and in most cases do not take all information for granted. The direct face to face communication provides us with a definite sense of what the other person really means and gives us assurance that our interpretation of the communication is correct. That is why the face to face interviewing process still remains the most popular method of communication in a selection process. All online communication and information on the internet are thus prone to misinterpretation as we are not able to interpret the information using the non verbal cues or expressions that are an essential part of the communication process. The communication gap is thus the gap of interpretation as despite a lot of information there is certain dearth of essential information and our mind recognizes the communication process as incomplete. You may chat with a person online for several hours in a day but unless you are able to see or hear his or her facial and bodily expressions, you can never be assured that the communication process is completely authentic. Of course, modern devices such as the webcam have greatly improved the communication process. Yet it is also true that even if we have all the essential cues of communication, the very fact that we have to interpret the information received subjectively, can suggest the possibility of a communication gap.

In this discussion then, I simply pointed out that the three stages of communication comprise of certain essential elements and a communication gap is inherent in the process of interpretation either because of our own limitations or due to limitations of technology.

You have a phone number - need address? It doesn't have to be overly difficult to find information about someone online. You just have to look in the right places.

Find addresses for home phones.

There are several free directories that will allow you to search for addresses online, such as WhitePages. If they do not give you results or are out dated, you could try an online investigator.

If you have some free time to browse the search engines you can try entering the phone number into Google. No results? keep removing the last digit of the phone number until you get a result, which will probably be businesses numbers in the same area. This will give you a rough idea where they are.

Find addresses with cell phones.

Cell phones are slightly more tricky, as they are often protected by privacy laws. You don't have to spend a fortune on an offline private detective though.

Online investigating services can give you the ability to find practically any information about someone from just a simple cell phone number. Of course there is a small fee, but this is to cover the cost of collecting all this private information.

Double check the details.

What ever your reason is for needing to find an address, you shouldn't have any difficult when searching online. Keep in mind when researching people online, most people share their name with many others, even in the same city or town. Make sure you have the correct facts to avoid any unnecessary embarrassment.

YOUR CAREER IS A VALUABLE ASSET: Your career is probably the most valuable asset you have. Develop it and DON'T abuse it or take it for granted. If you do, you create problems for yourself. You can find lots of careers in telecoms at Telecoms Engineering Careers, Telecom Careers in UK and Telecom Jobs in Europe.

KEEP LEARNING: Always try something new and increase your skill sets. This way you can insulate yourself from downsizing and will help you do a better job.

SUPPORT: Don't take for it granted the support of those around you in the t home and around the workplace. Support has to be earned. Does your boss respect you and do they talk openly? These elements, when put together can be a good barometer of how well you are doing in the relationship stakes.

POLITICS: Most people do not like to hear politics at work, but it is a natural occurrence when people converse together. Politics is often the reason why people become dissatisfied at work and leave, or lose out to somebody more popular when a promotion arises. A good relationship with your colleagues is therefore important.

SUCCESS NEEDS TO BE ACKNOWLEDGED: There is nothing worse than not having your success acknowledged. Make sure your successes are know to the appropriate personnel and don't brag too much. Know how to project yourself within your workplace.

A NEW BOSS: More often than not, a new boss means a change in business strategy. The new boss has probably been brought into the organisation to do something different, or meet a new challenge. Determine if you still have the relevant skills for the job and either fully support your new boss and all the new changes, find something new within the organisation, or leave altogether.

LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES: Of course, everybody makes mistakes - that goes without saying. What is important is that you learn from the mistakes and not to repeat them in the future. Take time to investigate what went wrong when you made mistakes and learn the consequences of them.

NETWORKING: Always widen your own network of useful contacts while at work as these will come in very useful when you are looking for a new job. Many employees are recruited because of a personal recommendation and managers like to recruit someone that can be recommended by a person they know and whose opinion they value. This takes a lot of risk out of the recruitment process for the hiring manager.

IMPROVE YOUR SELF IMAGE: Look your best and act positively, be on time for meetings, be courteous and polite, don't give a negative vibe as this will be picked up and rank against you.

APPRAISE YOURSELF: Be honest with yourself. Pay careful attention to your appraisals and rate yourself. Are you achieving your goals, and meeting your targets? Are you working as efficiently as possible? Have you a tendency to get lazy and not focus at the job at hand? Self-examination will allow you to improve your work in an efficient manner.

REMEMBER - YOUR CAREER IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY: Your boss should encourage you to reach your best potential in that job but he can't manage your career. It is very important to know what you want from your career - visualize where you want to be in the future paying attention to your skills set and ambitions. Plan how you are going to make it there. Take control of your career will give you a greater sense of purpose and empowerment. Enjoy the journey - Telecom Engineering Jobs UK.

FINALLY -IMPORTANT WORK/LIFE BALANCE: It's no good having a successful career and fulfilling all your work commitments, if everything else around you, like your family and social life if failing. Without good balance between work and life, there is only failure.

A lot of people have started to get really tired of the endless marketing calls from telemarketers trying to sell you a credit card or an insurance policy or even a new talk time plan for your cell phone connection. The worst part of these calls are they are normally received at a time when you are spending time with your family after a long hard days work or are about to sit for either lunch or dinner. Even the national do not disturb call list has not deterred pesky telemarketers from calling people round the clock trying to sell something or the other.

But some people who were completely sick of receiving these marketing calls and after trying out various other methods of keeping these marketing calls at bay have come up with an innovative idea. These people do not answer a call the first time they receive it. They let the phone number appear on the caller ID of their cell phones or land line phones and then they immediately log on to the internet, go to their favorite reverse phone lookup service or reverse cell phone lookup service and enter the phone number from where they just received the call.

By doing this they immediately get to know if the call was from someone they know or some company they had contacted or if the call was from a marketing company. This is possible because internet based reverse phone lookup services allow you to check for the name and address of the owner of a phone number. You just have to enter the number in their search box and click search. Within seconds you get complete information on who is the owner of the number, the complete postal address of the person or company and few other details.

This enables people to filter out unwanted calls and only call back those numbers that they know or those numbers which they feel are important. Reverse phone lookup services have come as a boon for people and families completely sick and tired of unwanted and unsolicited phone calls. It has also helped people get addresses and other details of a person or organization via their phone numbers. In fact not just individuals or families, but the main users of reverse phone lookup and reverse cell phone lookup services are the big companies and organizations.

It has been proven by various studies and surveys that most companies lose productivity and efficiency because of answering too many calls that are not related to their business at all. Marketing calls take up a considerable part of a person's time in the office and companies are doing everything to make sure that their employees are free from answering unwanted calls and can concentrate completely at the work in hand.

This is one of the main reasons why reverse phone lookup services have been so popular with companies all across America. In fact most companies have now made it mandatory for their staff to check with reverse phone lookup services first regarding a phone number before calling that number back. This has resulted in much better efficiency and also avoided the sense of frustration when employees have to answer unsolicited phone calls again and again.

What most people tend to wonder about when it comes to reverse cell phone search services is why they are necessary in the first place? Why would anyone want to bother and what information do these services really provide?

One of the many bits of information reverse cell phone search services will provide is the first and last name including the address of the person based on their phone number. Some of such services will even aid you further by providing an online map to the destination.

Some reverse phone lookups can also give you provide you with instant background checks including court records, criminal history, divorce records, marriage records and more.

If someone has been calling a member of your family, perhaps your spouse or even your kids and you want to know who that person is and where they live, reverse cell phone searches can assist you and provide the details rather easily.

Something else that your might need reverse cell phone search services for is in order to locate an old friend who has moved. You may have no information about their current location but by using their mobile phone number and a reverse cell phone, you might get their new addresses so you have the opportunity to get in touch with them again.

Prank calls are another reason why you might want to use these search services, with a reverse cell phone search you can easily find not only the name but the address of the person making those prank calls.

Owing bills is a regular part of life but perhaps you've got a lot of them on your plate and you want to find out who's been calling you over what bill, you can easily make use of such searches to find the information you need.

If harassing or obscene phone calls are disturbing you via your phone line, you can easily run a search and find out more about them so you can get them reported and they leave you alone once and for all. This make things easier to report to the police in case the phone calls become threatening.

There are many sites that you can use to find a name and address with a phone number. However, not all of them let you search unpublished and cellular phone numbers, and even less give you access to instant background checks.

When someone asks for your phone number, most of the time you give away your number without thinking twice. You believe that there is no harm in sharing your phone number with others. However, things have changed because now you can perform a reverse phone book lookup.

These services can be very handy as they allow people to gather information confidentially like detectives using a reverse phone book lookup search method that is reverse to the one used in a phone book. Hence, an unknown person can gather all you information without your knowledge, once they have an access to your phone number.

However, the services of such websites can be used for your own benefits too. You can use this reverse phone book lookup service to trace a name from a phone number, which either belongs to your friend/relative or people used to disturb others through crank calls.

The great thing about using the services of this website is that your identity is never leaked to people, whose information you have gathered. People will be able to do some detective work on their own using this reverse phone book lookup service. Again, you do not have to pay the website every time you use their services. There is a one-time membership fee, which allows you to enjoy the services for a long time.

Large numbers of people, who have already used the reverse lookup services, found the process used for the search to be quite easy. Such simplicity has added to its popularity amongst a vast web audience.

With the advent of prepaid phone cards communicating our feelings have become so easy. But one should be careful enough to find the best card which suits one's needs and pocket. Every body looks for a card best in quality combined with low rate for making local and international calls.

If we trace the origin of prepaid cards we have to go back to Italy, where there was an acute shortage of medal coins to operate pay phones. In 1975 a vending machine manufacturer had the idea of using something other than coins to operate pay phones. As a result in 1976 came the release of first phone card. Pay phone users would insert cards printed on thin card board with a magnetic strip.

Many companies through out Europe and Japan worked incessantly to improve the quality of phone cards since its invention. The first chip based 'smart cards' were introduced in France. By 1992 most of the major telecommunication companies had released their own brand of phone cards. With new marketing technology and diverse cards phone card industry prospered in leaps and bounds. By 2000 calling cards were available on the internet, post office, super market and gas stations.

The winds of innovation again blew in the industry with the release of the first prepaid cell phone in 2001. These phones function like calling cards. One can take one`s cell phone overseas with out incurring high roaming charges. One SIM Card is a prepaid international cell phone provider. This card can be recharged with an optimum calling plan. It provides the least expensive and easiest alternative to use international cell phone service available.

Pre paid service plans enable cell phone users to control their budget. Prepaid airtime recharge cards can be obtained by going online, college book stores or mass retailers. The advantage of pre paid card is that it gives the customer more flexibility.

Advanced international calling cards are also available these days as a solution for domestic and long distance communications. The same calling cad can be used for all international calling destinations. Wide variety of choices available makes the phone card selection complicated for the user. Calling card companies anticipate this problem and address them right on the main page of their web site. The best rate finder is the feature which is most suitable for providing detailed information on the best phone card to use internationally and domestically. Users should do their best to maximize savings and minimize connection problems. Pre paid phone cards by meeting the rigorous long distance requirements may allow the user to scale back their dependency on the land line phone altogether.

Prepaid phone cards are a boon for staying connected with family and friends during one`s holidays. A great supply of quality prepaid phone cards and long distance services are available these days. The most important thing is to find the right calling card and enjoy holidays. Wise choice should be done since all phone cards are not the same.

You are not going to know anything about a number if it is not coming up on your caller ID box. That goes without saying. What you have to think about when an unknown number comes up and keeps calling is who that person may be, but also, if you are even getting the entire picture. Caller ID is hit or miss, and there are some tricks around it. Whatever the case, you do want to do what you can to find out more.

The number on your caller ID box can be either from a cell phone or a landline phone. You may not know right away which is which, but you can tell a little about the origin by looking at the first six digits of the number. The first three are the area code, and that is a number you can look up online. That will tell you a state or an area of a state. The prefix, or the next three numbers, are going to tell you city, or part of a city.

That works well for some information, but that is not always going to be the entire story, and is often not enough. When that happens, you have a few options to decide with which type of number you are dealing. You can use the white and yellow pages online to see if the number is found through their reverse phone search. If not, you have unlisted landline or a mobile number. That mobile number is harder to find, but it can happen.

You can use the search engines to search for possible mobile numbers, and you can also see if you can get that number to come up through professional networks as well. You should also look into the meaning of caller ID spoofing so you are aware that these numbers may not be coming to you from that actual number after all. That is when searching is tough.

Don't give up if you seem to be stuck after going through all of the above options. Use a site that will search a phone number for you. There are special sites on the Internet that can help you find more about an unlisted landline or a mobile number when all other sources fail you.