Lexi Dittrich CTP Blog #2

 

 I'm living at the dorms again during this semester and my new roommate has a set of friends she sticks to closely at school. There was one day last week where she and her gaggle were in quite a rush between our floors, talking quietly and secretively as they planned and exciting surprise party for one of their friends. Incidentally, I wandered into my floor's lounge right as they were signing their friend's birthday card. I felt I should leave, but my roommate insisted that I sign the card. 

I watched as the girls passed the card around, creating cute cartoon self-portraits and making great big speech bubbles for their special message to their friend, but as I observed, I was very uncertain of my presence in this situation. After telling me their friend's name, it had taken me ages to remember what she looked like, and on that note, I clearly didn't know who I was supposed to be signing a card for. Of course, I knew her name and her face, but I didn't know who she was. I wasn't sure of her likes and dislikes, her hobbies, her age, or even what her major was. Most importantly, I was unsure of what she thought of me or if she would even appreciate that I had signed her card. I struggled to conjure up the nicest card greeting I could write to her, but even the kindest sentiments might not make my signature personal or important to her, because there was no way for me to know yet if she even considered me as a friend.

This, I find, is a great example of the Uncertainty Reduction Theory of communication practices. This theory dictates that starting a new relationship means engaging with uncertainty and using communication to reduce your uncertainty about the person you are trying to begin a relationship with. Looking for alternative definitions, I felt that the Communications department of Oregon State defined this theory nicely:

"The Uncertainty Reduction Theory asserts that people have a need to reduce uncertainty about others by gaining information about them. Information gained can then be used to predict the others' behavior," (Retrieved from http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/theory/ur.html)

When I signed this girl's card, I had no information about her, so I was very uncertain about how she would react to my message. However, by signing this card I was ensuring that I would gain some sort of information about her--that is, whether she thought kindly of me or not. I felt that this card would hold a great significance in whether she would want to start a relationship, despite the uncertainty we had for each other from lack of communication. Come the day of the party, she thanked me kindly for my birthday wishes to her, and indeed some of the uncertainty between us broke as we communicated as friends for the first time.