One concept

One concept that we discussed on is what is self. The first post I wrote for this week, and the last paper I wrote, included about one's self. Throughout this course, I have learned that the way we are depends on how much we communicate with people. The book states that "The self arises in communication with others", which explains we develop a self in the process of communicating with others. I believe that this is very true, and didn't know this until I took this class. Also, this isn't all that it made me realize, the people you communicate with, eventually defines the kind of people you will become. Sometimes you hang out with people who has a certain type of idea about a particular thing, and when you communicate enough with them, their idea will become your idea. We all form ideas of our own, but sometimes it will overcome our own. It also defines the type of person you are, whether you're a good or bad person, generous, nice, mean, etc. Communication with others will define you as a person in general.

Favorite/ Least favorite

My favorite part of the class was the discussion part of the class because we get to express our opinions about what we think, what we learned and correlate how it relates to our lives and to the class, and also we get to write to other students about what we think about their posts. I like it when teachers use this type of teaching because it engages us as the students to interact with other students to get different opinions/ ideas from them. It is exactly what the book talks about with communicating with others, we get their ideas and opinions. The only thing I didn't like about the course was writing the papers. It seemed a little tedious for me. I think the topics wasn't as engaging to me, as the blog questions were in my opinion. I wished the topics were a little bit more different. Other than that, the class itself was a really good class. I really enjoyed this class and would recommend it to others.

What I have learned over the course

What I have learned over the course of this class is that communication is what helps us grow. Without communication, we won't know any better and we will have a tough time growing up. It is in our human nature to have needs of belonging and communication in order to make personal growth. The book had the example of the 2 girls who had minimal to no contact and communications who had minds of 6 months old. Writing the last paper made me realize that sometimes we take communication for granted because we don't realize how much it plays a role in our lives and how much it affects us if we never had communication. We learn a lot through communication with people. Sometimes we get different views that we would not have thought and that's only through communication. We use communication as source of knowledge to support our own personal growth. We use communication in multiple ways in order for us to become a fully developed human.

Diversity in Family Life

We have so much diversity in today's family life, before, it was just a man and a wife with kids but nowadays we have gay couples being married and they're having kids too. They either adopt or have someone be a surrogate mother to have their child. We also have single parent families and interracial families. The way the families lives their lives are different too, we are seeing a bigger increase in women working outside the home, not just in being a house wife taking care of the children and house. In some cases, we see the women working and the man working at home or not even working at all. Family life in today's society has changed completely from what it use to be back then. The views of the people have expanded from what we never would have thought before. People rush sometimes to get married and/ or have marital problems that they can't solve. The divorce rate is a lot higher in today's society than it was before. We are seeing more and more new views on marriage and family life, who knows what it'll be like in the future.

Marriage

The way we see marriage now is different from how it use to be before. Our views of marriage has changed throughout the years and it will continue to change. When most of us thinks of marriage, we think of two people being happily married, but nowadays, people make mistakes and think that they are happy with one another and ends up getting divorces. The divorce rate is much higher in today's society than it was before. Also, when people thinks of marriage back then, the man goes out and hunt while the women did house chores and took care of the kids, then it became the man went to work, working the factories while the women stayed home and cleaned and took care of the kids, it wasn't til recently that men and women had more equal roles in the work force. We are seeing women having careers outside of just taking care of the house and family. The women before, always tended to the men and the rest of the family but it is changing where men and women are having equal roles in the chores. Also, marriages today, we are seeing Gay couples in some states coming together and celebrating their lives together. The diversity of marriage has seen new light. There are also marriages of different races which we haven't seen before. It's hard to say what will happen with marriage next. We have seen so many different things in marriage. Maybe one day gay marriage will be accepted everywhere. Who knows, maybe sooner or later, aliens will come down from space and we'll start marrying them too. Marriage will continue to change with our times. We might not even eventually celebrate marriages anymore. We'll just wait to see in the future what will happen.

family

My definition of family is someone who is always there for you no matter what. My family consists of my parents and my sisters, not to mention the aunts and uncles too. But, my immediate family are the ones I can always count on. They have always loved me and accepted me unconditionally no matter how many times I have messed up. Family members always helps each other out whenever they need one another. Whether it's to talk to, or to pick them up, whatever they need, they can always count on. One form of relationship from the book that doesn't fit my definition is my relationship with my friends. Some of my friends have always been there for me and always helped me out in whatever time of need as I am for them. They are way more than my best friends, they are considered my brothers and sisters. I have so much love for them and always will be there for them if they ever need me.

Committed Romantic Relationships

When a couple becomes in a relationship, they feel a strong connection with each other that they don't feel with others. There's a passion that you get from the other person that you usually don't get from other people. You feel like you can and want to connect with the person. It's not a just a I-You relationship, it's a I-Thou relationship which is the strongest and best connection you can make. You have a romantic and sexual feeling for that person that you can't get with other people. In a healthy committed relationship, a couple shares everything with each other. They feel comfortable enough to share everything with each other. The couple shows the other the love and support one needs and are looking for. We are there for them no matter what. You invest a lot of time and effort in these relationships and they are the ones that pays off the best.