Rituals and Patterns Blog Post 3

Tommy Drorbaugh

Christina Ivey

Blog Post 3

Com 160

Chapter 10 Interpersonal Communication

            The quote I chose for this month’s blog post comes from our textbook: “Our interpersonal relationships are, in many ways, very ritualistic… relationships are often deeply patterned.” (198) What resonated with me is actually the entire section in this chapter titled “Patterns and Rituals”. This section discusses our social relationships within our lives and the patterns that are expected by people but are never examined.

            For example, when meeting a new person in class, work or at a bar there are ritual questions that you always ask to break the ice and get to know them. Questions like: where they’re from, their names, and what brought them here. These are always my go-to questions to ask people and from there I can start a conversation if need be. Another example the book mentions is going into a grocery store and being greeted by the employees and being helped with your grocery needs. The book considers, what if every time we walked into a grocery store something new happened and how stressful going grocery shopping would be. Another ritualistic social setting are classrooms. Classrooms have a ton of social rituals which I have never thought about. Rituals like raising your hand to speak, how to address the teacher, and graduation ceremonies.

            This section really got me thinking about how we as social beings are very pattern oriented when it comes to life and communicating. I thought a lot about rituals in my life like waking up every morning and making coffee, eating, and showering. Pondering this also made me realize how interruptions to these rituals can either be very traumatizing or relieving. When I got in a car accident it shook me up for a while because it seemed like any other day of driving home from school. When we got the email on Tuesday about no class, I was relieved that I could watch Netflix instead of going to class. Another thought I had was how everyone always enjoys breaks from these patterns, these breaks are called vacations. When communicating I also have rituals I use based on the context. To a friend or school mate I’ll address them with a “howdy” but with a teacher or someone with authority I’ll address them using “hi”. There’s also the rituals of first meeting someone and the questions you ask to get to know them. Even when driving we have the patterns of using a blinker to signal a turn. I wonder what life would be like without these social patterns.