Chapter 2 Blog 1 Social Constructions

I prefer the psychological model over the social constructionist model. The social constructionist model of "world building" takes away the interpersonal aspect of communication because according to this model, communication does not take place between individuals, but around them. There are some parts of the social constructionist model that makes sense to me. The fact that customs, traditions, and rules guide our interactions is largely true. As a society we construct our world when it comes to colors, foods, symbols, and gestures. We even have constructions regarding gender. As an example, we as a culture agree that pink is for girls and blue is for boys. We would associate pancakes and eggs as breakfast foods. The dollar bill is only worth $1, and everyone agrees on that, so it would do us no good to just decide one day that the dollar in our wallet is worth $100. Social construction is powerful because once our culture widely accepts a construction it would be nearly impossible to ever change. It is also interesting that in this model, good communication is defined as socially appropriate communication. I agree with the texts criticism of this model putting too much emphasis on the social self and not enough emphasis on the individual self. There are so many social constructions to abide by, and many people can communicate successfully within those constructions. however, there are socially "awkward" people who are not successful because they are individuals that don't conform to this model and their "inappropriate" communication is noticeable.