What Is Communication?

Why do dogs sniff each other's butt? They are not trying to be weird. They communicate this way. We get used to understanding the words "talking" and "communication" as the same thing, but if we define and look at the word "communication" differently, everything will change. Communication is the transfer of information from one object to another. When a dog sniffs another dog, he gets a bunch of information about that dog — what he ate, his status, sickness, and so on.

But let's not rush everything and get back to human communication. In the case of humans, we call it talking, and this type of communication happens verbally. Let's go deeper. Every human has a dictionary in their head. Every word has a definition, and when we communicate, we construct some idea in our head, then we look up the appropriate words to put this idea into a sentence, and then we transfer this idea to another person verbally. That person receives the sentence, translates it in his head using his own dictionary, and understands what we meant.

The problem is when the definition in one person's head does not match the definition in another person's head. Because of this, one person meant one thing and another understood something completely different. I've seen this many times — two people meant the same thing but argued because they could not understand each other.

And these definitions were agreed upon by our ancestors a long time ago. Languages were constructed and evolved through generations, but definitions sometimes changed and were deformed — sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally. That is why the question "what is a woman" is so active today.

Communication is everywhere. Machines communicate with each other. Bees. Whales. Even plants — yes, you did not misunderstand me. Trees transfer information with each other through their roots and with the help of fungi underground. When there is a parasite attack in the forest, trees inform each other which protective substance to produce against that very parasite. And this is beautiful when you look at the word "communication" a different way.

So next time you see two dogs sniffing each other, don't laugh — they're just better at this than we are. I hope that I opened another gate for you in this world with this post.