Communication Patterns of Men and WomenEssay title: Communication Patterns of Men and Women“The whole goddamn business of what you’re calling intimacy bugs the hell out of me. I never know what you women mean when you talk about it. Karen complains that I don’t talk to her, but it’s not talk she wants, it’s some other damn thing, only I don’t know what the hell it is!” This quote from a man interviewed by Lillian Rubin is the perfect example of the differences in communication between men and women. These differences in communication methods of women and men are born of a complex interaction between society and the individual. Men seem to struggle with intimacy and emotional expression, while women rely on this type of communication causing much struggle between the sexes.
Lillian Rubin suggests that intimacy, a form of communication between men and women, itself is an ambiguous or difficult term to define, but asserts that it does embody the idea of the ability to put away a public persona and be cared about or care for the “real person”. This alludes to a struggle between the human need for intimacy and that for independence suggested by other sociologists. In addition to this idea of intimacy, Rubin looks deeper into the human psyche and analyzes the different ways in which men and women communicate their emotions. Rubin explains that while women can easily explain what emotions they are feeling and what has caused these, men struggle to verbalize their feelings and this causes animosities between men and women. Women want men to communicate their emotions while men don’t understand why they should or how to go about doing this (Rubin, p. 384-386).
Rubin’s explanation for the differences in communication is that it stems from societal pressures that encourage men to suppress their emotions, and act “rationally”. Men are socialized to believe that acting emotionally like women is not normal. She states that “this is the single most dispiriting dilemma between women and men.” Finally Rubin goes on to suggest that while men can act out anger and frustration inside the family, the expression of fear, dependency, or sadness would expose vulnerability, and is difficult for men to do (Rubin p. 383-388).
Another Sociologist, Deborah Tannon, has done research in the differences between communication methods of women and men. She also suggests that conflicting ideas of intimacy and independence plays a critical role in the differing views of communication. Tannon illustrates for the reader a typical scenario of a wife hurt by her husband’s lack of consent for a decision he made. The husband sees this type of communication as a sign of his inferiority or lack of independence while the wife feels excluded and hurt. The alternative views of the same situation illustrate the basic differences in how men and women communicate (Tannon, p. 222-224). This and several other examples given by Tannon, are examples of what she states is balancing a delicate system of communication. She suggests that the problem is that women hold men to their standards of conversational styles, and men hold women to theirs. If each sex attempted to understand, what Rubin suggested, that there are fundamental differences due to biological and societal influences then the lines of communication would be more open between women and men.
Sociologist Karen Walker analyzes communication habits of how men interact and display intimacy within their own gender. She specifically studies men’s use of public space, telephone use, jokes, and talk about women. The first aspect of her case study involved men’s use of public space. Her findings suggested that men do not make formal plans to meet and socialize in public places although this is the predominant place of interaction. She also noted that at the professional level, men are more likely to have planned social activities in their home. Next, in her interviews with men about the reason for making telephone calls, it was found that men call for reasons other then talking about personal issues like making plans, or business arrangements,
Sociology of Communication (2005) 10(1), 4-7.
Conducting research reveals that information about women on Twitter and Pinterest in a male-dominated social networking environment is associated with less communication difficulties. This seems to have an effect on the performance of men as users, especially when attempting to understand how they interact with women in the online environment. Indeed, men rated the effectiveness of their own self-reports on the social network more highly than their women’s online counterparts.
These results indicate that women in public spaces also face greater difficulties getting an understanding of online conversations, as well as men’s use of social media.
In an open field study of a sample of 847 men and women that used Facebook in 2015, the authors found that men were more likely than women to rate certain women as having good online communication skills and to be more engaged in online discussion within a given number of days. However, they found the effect limited to what they were willing to post on a Facebook account, so in our research, women received a slight increase and men were found to have slightly lower levels of participation.
The first point is that women aren’t the only group that experience interpersonal and inter-personal difficulties online’sociologist Karen Walker analyzes how men talk about what makes them want to “speak to others” or what gets them to respond appropriately. Men also engage in less formal activities, including talk about relationships, work, and social interaction.
The second point is that women rarely choose to speak openly or openly. Women don’t typically express any interest in being seen to be too loud in public, or in doing things well. This has led to social and cultural messages that are seen as disrespectful. The next point is that women are much more likely than men to engage in physical, sexual, or interpersonal activities outside the context of a social event. It is important that for women to be seen as less respectful of their partners, especially on social platforms, and this was reflected in their responses to these messages. The third point is that men who are more experienced or in the employ of social media are more likely to respond harshly to these messages rather than to a person’s intentions. This could suggest they are less likely to acknowledge their partner’s attempts to show them respect while still being more likely to react politely so as to avoid perceived bullying.
The online communities men and women communicate online are often highly political and polarized. These groups reflect the differing feelings of groups of people, or both. The main issues are the perceived negative or negative impact of certain groups among men and the perceived good (even if non-nostalgic) or bad effects of groups within the same group. In our study, however, the gender dynamics were not as fluid as the views of men. Men were particularly likely to express differing views on other types of social media. Even as men expressed more negative