Communication - need to know
Monday, December 26, 2011 at 7:05AM There is a clear principle in many different organizations guiding the movement of information: who needs to know? When that question is considered in life, people often change their communications. In therapy the issue of boundaries is frequently addressed. We live in an age when technollogy has created such easy flow of information via telephone, text message, email, facebook, twitter, and whatever comes next. It has become so easy that we may forget to ask the question: who really needs to know?
To answer that question, consider another: what is the purpose of this communication? The process of communication involves a sender, a receiver, and a language. It appears to me that people are communicating more and more information from themselves (the sender) without careful thought about who it is going to (the sender). The unconsidered question involves the motivation underlying the communication. Is this information being provided because it is going to be useful or helpful for the receiver, or does the sender simply want to be heard? To simplify: whose need is being met? If we stop and give thought to this question, we may find that some or even much of what we communicate really is unnecessary and may even be inappropriate.
This question relates to the previous post about my wife's cancer. For me, I have had to (or at least attempt to) clarify my motivations and assess whether or not the information would be useful for someone else to know. Obviously by posting this information on the web, it is now out there for anyone to view. We gave careful consideration of this before I embarked upon my writings.
There is much more to be said about this topic, and I am going to try to be diligent about this means of sharing my thoughts. The focus will be broad, a look at ourselves from a Christian worldview. Please come along for the ride, and thanks for reading!