Communication and Its Functions to Individuals

 

What is communication? There is a great deal of variation existed among the definitions of communication. Communication is a field of Social Sciences which related to society. It is a social process through symbols and message systems. In general, communication explains the phenomena, types and effects of the interaction of the society. Communication is an important activity in our lives. It is something that we do, something that we make, and something that we work on when we receive it from others. In this sense, communication is not just about speaking, but about any intentional acts which involved the sources, messages, channels and receivers. As communication is very important in our daily lives, we should know that what is the functions of communication to the individuals in order to understand the effects of communication to us. There are several functions of communication which are described as below.

   First, we communicate in order to work with others. Cooperation between people is the main purpose why we need to communicate with others. Communication is a must-need process if we want to get along with other people and to work with other people. For example, communication must be maintained in a group in order to achieve the aim and the objective of that group. Without communicate with others, we cannot fulfill our duties because other people cannot receive our messages and the objective of that group cannot be achieved. Therefore, communication, which involve the interaction between the individuals, is an essential process when we want to work with others, or in other words, to from a group.

    

   In addition, we must communicate to satisfy personal needs. Basically, food, water and shelter are the basic needs of a human being. Apart of this, we also need love, friendship, etc. The personal needs of the humans had been explained further by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs , which proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper “A Theory of Human Motivation” . Maslow’s hierarchy is often portrayed in the shape of a pyramid, with the most basic needs at the bottom, and the need for self-actualization at the peak of the pyramid. Physiological needs are at the bottom of the hierarchy which included food and drinks. These are followed by the safety needs- such as personal and financial security. Then there are relationship needs, which included love and friendships. Esteem needs, which are about us as we wanted to be respect by others and to have self-respect, are located below the top. Finally, the self- actualization needs, which involved self-expression and creativity, located at the top of the hierarchy. These needs would get more complicated and personal as one goes up the hierarchy. Without communication, we cannot satisfy these needs as communicate with others helps to satisfy these personal needs.

   

   Furthermore, we communicate to get information. Our life will become dull and passive without information. Communication, which provides the information about our surroundings, is a very important process. It is because we get the information through direct communication with others in most of the time. For example, we need to talk with others if we want to know today’s date from them. We also depends on the channels, which is one of the basic elements of the communication, to get the information from the sources. For instance, we get the latest news and information from all around the world through the mass media, which is one of the types of the communication channels.

   

   Besides the functions above, communication also provides us chances to express ourselves. This function of communication is important as it covers the creative aspects of communication. We can not only express our feeling, creativity and imagination by using words, but also pictures. For example, many autistic patients did not speak much, but most of them like to draw. They are able to express their feelings and emotions through the pictures. Communication, which enables us to interact with other people, is a very important process. This is because it enables others to understand what we are thinking about and what we are demanding for.

   

   In general, communication plays an important role in our lives. As human beings, we cannot survive if we do not communicate. We need to communicate in order to fulfill our needs and purposes of living. We can only achieve what we want by the process of communication. The study of communication is important because it serves functions that touch every aspects of our lives. Hence, we must know the functions of communication and why an individual need to communicate. Then, we can only exploit the functions of the communication well and make our life to be more interesting and meaningful. Everyone should know the importance of communication and sharpen their communication skills so that they can achieve their aim and objective of the communication: to create the similarities between the sources and the receivers.