What is Communication?

Communication is the process by which any message is passed from one entity to another entity by any means including chemically, suggestively, verbally, and digitally. All living beings communicate in some way from instinctive processes to incredibly complex and thought-out art with an infinite amount of examples below and beyond. This class focuses on communication as it relates to how information reaches mass amounts of people through different media sources and mediums. But before it developed into this complex system, human communication just consisted of physical gestures and suggestive motions like what we might observe any animal doing.

The ability to communicated has been and always will be essential to the survival of human beings because it allows for collaboration and teamwork. When people work together, they can achieve accomplishments that are far greater than just the sum of each individual part. Every family, company, organization, and country were founded using communication and the messages that were shared between senders and receivers.

Additionally, humans' mental well being depends on the ability to communicate with others. Studies have shown that the lack of communication can tear apart the minds of the bravest of people due to intense feelings of loneliness and a lack of an outlet. Many mentally-fit astronauts have developed depression while in space due to having an inability to talk to loved ones and a shrunken communication network because of the limited amount of people around them. NASA trains many future-astronauts by restricting the recruits to rooms for days in order to see if they can cope with the inability to have real communication. The European Space Agency is currently running a test that has six astronauts living in an isolated chamber for 500 days which represents a simulated test flight to Mars. The main objective is to see how isolation effects their mental and physical health. The test also limits their communication to emails and a few delayed voice call sessions, which is what they would have on a mission to Mars. Without proper communication, humans would not be able to survive.


Works Cited:

NASA - Behavioral Issues Associated with Isolation and Confinement: Review and Analysis of ISS Crew Journals (Journals): NASA, 06.25.10. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/science/experiments/Journals.html 09.21.10

ESA - Mars500 - Mars500: study overview: ESA, 05.21.10. http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Mars500/SEM7W9XX3RF_0.html 09.21.10