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Poker has been played since 1829, and has evolved into a huge family of numerous card games over the years. The most popular game in this family is texas hold’em, where each player is dealt a two card hand, and five community cards are dealt face up onto the table with a round of betting between each card.

Although much luck is involved in this game, the most important factor is being able to note the incredibly subtle communications between your opponents. Poker is a game of psychology and communication. The better you can get into your opponents’ heads, the better you will do in the end. The way a player is sitting, for example, can be a clear indication of his hand. A stiff, tense posture could mean anxiety and insecurity, though it could just as well be a conscious sign to trick other players. Eye contact is a key factor as well. Avoiding eye contact could mean an infinite number of things. Just a slight twitch of the mouth can give you a lot of information about your opponents hand.

Players can choose to check, or not bet, even if they have a good hand, giving the appearance of insecurity, and tricking other players into thinking they have a bad hand. A player can also bet extravagantly, whether he has a good hand or not, attempting to convince other players that he has the best hand, urging them to fold, or give up.

Most people attempt to keep their composure absolutely blank. They keep a straight face for hours, sitting stiffly in the same position at the poker table. Even so, if you look carefully, you can begin to read your opponent, guessing at the strength of his hand.

There are many subtle communications going on during poker, some of which our conscious minds are not even able to understand. Even if a player has a perfect poker face and doesn’t move a muscle, staring at you with cool impassivity, it is possible to read their hand.

Many people say poker is all about luck, but I disagree. Communication is the key factor in texas hold’em poker. It’s not about how good your hand is. It’s about how bad your opponents hand is, and being able to pick up the incredibly subtle, involuntary communications of your opponents can tell you exactly what type of hand they have.

 

-Ville Frojd

People say that communication is a cultural aspect; one in which is performed by individuals who share a similar representation of the world. Tattoos are a visual, non-verbal element of communication. If a picture is worth 1000 words, think of how much you can tell about an individual merely by what images are portrayed amongst their bodies?
Tattoos, I would consider to be a revolution. Although they have been around for centuries, tattoos in today’s society portray a more communicative response opposed to their past history. Individuals today get tattoos for many objective reasons; some would agree that tattoos help to define their character, without having to explain anything aloud.

Let’s go back in time to the reign of Plato. He believed that “we should be skeptical about claims that images can give us”. A tattoo is merely an image embedded into skin that can mean something different for everyone. Just like Plato’s cave analogy, humans can perceive a distorted reality for anything. Never be too quick to judge an image, standing alone at its mere appearance.

Much like media, tattoos have the ability to influence and historicize through non-verbal communication and independent thought. Tattoos have the ability to display an individual’s spiritual attributions that are of importance to them. They also can depict events, images, or guidelines towards a historical influence, otherwise a quote, caption or picture.

A tattoo conveys a different symbolic meaning for every individual, that’s what makes them so unique. They can speak to the individual, as well as the people that surround them. Tattoos have the ability to speak without a voice, merely an image as permanent as the skin itself.

– Alex Wilks

References:
– Intersections of Media and Communications Text
– webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/platoscave.html

For as long as I can recall, I have always been fasinated with a monumental event that took place back in 1969. Formally know as Woodstock, this art and music festival was better known as the 3 Days of Peace. Half a million individuals came together in town of Bethel, New York City, to celebrate a peace rally, one in which was hoping to bring American soldiers home safely from the Vietnam War.

Famous artists such as The Grateful Dead, Santana, The Who, Jeffersons Airplanes, and Jimi Hendrix performed at this unforgettable affair.

This form of mass media brought crowds from all over the country to participate in this once in a life time event. It united a simple message of peace and openess within a community; cultural expression was an asset. I do believe that music, in its own werid way, speaks to individuals on a more personal level. It is a special form of communication that is expressed by those who appreciate it. Each tone captivates creativity in the right hemisphere of the brain, allowing the brain to interept music to a more literal level.

Although those hundreds of thousands of people came together for 3 days attemping to make a change, no dramatic change in American History occured. The impact it did make was its ability to conjoin society through mass media, and allow them to celebrate music in a non-violent way. If you ask me, these attitudes did make a difference in the generations that followed.

– Alex Wilks

There are over six thousand eight hundred languages on earth today. On my travels around the world i saw many different cultures, and the only way to communicate was with vague hand gestures and facial expression. Even though many people won’t be able to use their language to communicate, there is a language that everyone can understand.

The oldest songs we are aware of are on clay tablets, written in the Hurrian language, dating back to the year 1400 B.C. Music has been around longer than anyone can remember, and has always been an amazing form of communication. It provides a way in which people can share many different emotions, ideas and even subtle meanings even though their spoken languages may be mutually incomprehensible.

Different keys in music have different emotions attached to them. Major keys tend to sound happy and uplifting, while minor keys convey a feeling of sadness or melancholy. There is a whole area of study for the social and cultural aspects of music in global context, called ethnomusicology. Music can be used to tell a story, or to convey meanings or suggestions.

What makes music understandable to anyone with ears is that our brains don’t have to decode it. We hear it, and we feel it. The different tones can be understood by anybody, no matter where they’re from or what language they speak. There has yet to be a culture discovered that lacks music. It is simply a part of our very existence.

Many people argue that music is not a language at all, because creating meaning is not one of its goals. It’s true that its harder to create meaning, and convey complex ideas through music, but it can be done. 2500 years ago Aristotle said that music is Imitative. It is imitative of human emotion.

Communication is defined as anything that can produce an emotional response from someone. This would mean that music is one of the most pure forms of communication. It imitates and transmits human emotion to anyone listening. There is no message, just pure emotion. It can be said that music is the universal language.

-Ville Frojd