On page fifty-seven of Language, Hayakawa states that talking gives people "a pleasant sense of being alive." I agree with this entirely, but will rephrase it to: "Socializing gives people the sense of fitting in with everyone else."
At parties, people socialize not only so they aren't perceived as rude, but also because they don't want to be a social outcast. They want to be accepted and heard by others. Social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, are very popular nowadays because it provides people with the chance of communicating and befriending others. On special occasions, such as holidays and birthdays, friends and family are invited to celebrate the occasion together.
Every individual, whether reticent or outgoing, needs to socialize to a certain degree.
-Chloe Martianou
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Agreed. I also enjoyed Hayakawa's comments on how (seemingly) meaningless most of what we say is. (e.g. "Hello", "Have a nice day", "The weathers nice today", "How are you?", etc.) Logically, saying many things has no purpose but we say it anyway to fulfill a social function.
ReplyDelete-Bryce Cody
I agree too. People talk to socialize, but they also talk because they don't like silence. There is something about silence that makes (most) people uncomfortable, as illustrated by the drawing on the bottom of page 57- "the burden of silence". Hayakawa is basically saying here that it is better to say unimportant things than to say nothing at all (which is the basis of socializing.)
ReplyDelete-Audrey