Example Of Critical Thinking On Misinterpretation Analysis

Communication is definitely a great thing. For many of us, however, it simply means involvement into an everyday process of talking to friends or family via phones or the Internet without paying much attention to peculiarities of their communicative needs. Therefore, it is not uncommon for communication failures to take place, and, surprisingly, we hardly bother ourselves to find out what went wrong and learn a lesson from the misunderstanding. It is a good idea, though, to see the misinterpretation situation as a way of shouldering responsibility for insensitivity to your partner’s communication needs and trying to fix it by taking a deeper insight into his/her communication standpoint.
I recently had quite an absurd misinterpretation thing with one of my closest friends. I remembered it very well, as it seemed absolutely staggering for me why two people who had known each other for several years would experience a minor yet nasty conflict like that. I texted my friend inviting her to eat out in a new restaurant and try one of the most delicious pizzas they serve. I ended my message with the sentences “Pizza won’t make our butts bigger than they are They’re already as big as an elephant, so nothing to worry about! ”. However, I didn’t get a reply. I texted her saying that was a joke, but no reply as well. Finally, I called her to apologize for the stupid joke I made. To my utter surprise, my friend told me that everyone was blaming her for being fat. Even her parents said earlier she gained some weight, which made her really upset. She was trying hard to limit her calories intake, but it was too hard to keep food energy figures in check. I realized I was wrong. I suggested we immediately met to clear all up and make sure nothing like that would disturb our friendship.
I strongly believe that this sort of misinterpretation could have been avoided if we had a spoken channel of communication, as it is often accompanied by non-verbal clues. I think I would be able to turn the whole issue into a laugh and make my friend feel comfortable with a friendly smile, another joke, a pat on the back or a hug. Eye or bodily contacts are effective means of calming people down and relieving their tension by sheer physical presence.