Communication is the determination of human interaction and the share of information. However, communication skills need to be perfect to achieve the target goals. That implies that the parties involved in the communication should consider perfect strategies to communicate to avoid misinterpretations, misunderstanding, ambiguity, and other communication errors, which might not be intended. Movies and films are common sites where communication skills are well displayed. Also, in these films, barriers and challenges to proper communication are witnessed. Perfect movies are interrelationship movies, which feature actions of two or more parties entirely depending on their communication skills. For instance, romantic movies and films are perfect sessions to demonstrate effective communication and their impact. These movies also showcase the outcomes of poor communication regarding interpersonal relationships. This paper studies the movie "friends with benefits" to elaborate more on effective communications, their impacts, and other ways to improve their communication skills.
The movie "Friends with benefits" narrates the relationship of Jamie and Dylan, who become friends and end up incorporating sex in the friendship. Although they initially agreed that sex should not be part of their story, they complicate their whole relationship upon getting intimate. Jamie is an employee working with a particular company in New York City. She approaches Dylan and offers him a job in the city, although he was resistant (as Jamie et al., 2012). Dylan. A resident of Los Angeles finally agrees to take up the task and moves to New York. The signing of the new contract by Dylan earns Jamie extra commission, and the duo becomes great friends, with the agreement of no sex in their friendship. Notably, the two friends are just from relationships; hence, no one was committed to another relationship.
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As days pass by, the two friends decide that casual sex is okay, provided it does not arouse emotional feelings of dating whatsoever. After several sessions of sexual contact, Jamie gets into a new relationship, and the two get back to the initial simple friendship. However, her new relationship does not last too long before they break up. Jamie and Dylan embark on their intimate relationship, although they insist that they are mere friends even before Dylan's family. On the night they spent at Dylan’s home, Jamie overhears Dylan admit to his sister Annie that she is unfit for, leaving Jamie immensely hurt.
Consequently, Jamie breaks their friendship for good. The two also face disagreements when Jamie realizes that Dylan decided to quit the company before the contract ends, which would cost Jamie commissions. Eventually, Dylan realizes that Jamie was the love of his life. He organizes a surprise meet-up with her in the fuel station in collaboration with her mother. The two love birds link up from the moment and go out for their first "official date," Their affection towards each other is significant as they cannot let each other's handoff. This paper studies concept of interpersonal communication as revealed in the movie Friends with benefits. The paper analyses five concepts, namely, self-disclosure, emotions, identity management, interpersonal conflict, and perception, as in the movie.
Self-disclosure is the act of giving additional information about oneself, either consciously or subconsciously. It refers to people sharing more information about themselves with others (DeVito, 2019). Such information includes fears, achievements, targets, plans, aspirations, regrets, past life experiences, likes, and dislikes. The concept is characterized by creating more bonds and intimacy between the parties involved. However, people tend to disclose themselves more to others as time goes by. It takes time for many people to gain the guts to share personal information and reveals their personalities. Self-disclosure is witnessed in the movie as Jamie and Dylan spent a night together, watching romantic films and share their views on friendship and sex. They both realize that sex can happen between friends, just for fun and not accompanied by emotional strings. In return, they get intimate the same night but as friends.
Emotions in interpersonal communications imply the psychological changes in a persona due to external influence. The person's feelings are motivated by the action of the other party or words. They are precisely the unspoken words that are expressed through actions or nonverbal cues and gestures. Emotions represent a considerable part of romantic communication between partners. Although the characters in the movie friends with benefits were in a friendship that was not emotion-driven, the feeling grew as time passed. The shared intimacy and strengthened the bond between them, and Dylan was emotionally attracted to Jamie so that he wanted to marry her. Additionally, as Dylan embarks on surprising Jamie and expresses his emotional feelings towards her, she is also emotionally attracted to him to that point they cannot let go of hands.
The process of identity management is comprised of three stages. The first stage is described by the parties identifying their differences and finding a standard equilibrium, all equally comfortable, for the relationship. For instance, when Dylan is hesitant to move to New York City, Jamie spends the evening taking him around the city to show him its beauty and opportunities. Additionally, the second part, the renegotiation stage, is witnessed when Dylan’s grandfather explains his tragedy of not marrying the love of his life and encourages Dylan to solve his issues with Jamie and rekindle their relationship. Finally, Jamie cools down and accepts to come to terms with Dylan for optimum satisfaction.
The concept of interpersonal conflict is also inevitable in interpersonal communications. Conflict may occur at different stages of the relationship. Conflicts in interpersonal communication mainly occur due to misunderstanding, ignorance, miscommunication, or differences in perspectives. However, relationships are pretty dependent on how the involved parties solve the conflicts. In situations whereby the partners do not agree to either one's opinions, the relationship risks termination.
On the other hand, if the persons agree and admit to agreeing on a common idea, the relationship thrives. The movie friends with benefits are characterized by interpersonal conflicts, as in where Jamie overhears Dylan referring to her as too unfit for him to marry. However, the duo finally reunites to solve issues. However, the conflict between Jamie and her ex-boyfriend is never solved.
Perception in communication precisely refers to judging the situation in your view. That includes making a conclusion or judging a person from one's point of understanding (Arnold & Boggs, 2019). Perception in the film, friends with benefits is established when Jamie gets hurt and breaks up her friendship with Dylan over his remarks. However, Jamie understands Dylan’s quest for pardon and his love for her when he surprises her at the station. She holds his hand and perfectly perceives the move as a more romantic action than mere friendship. Also, when Jamie offers Dylan a job opportunity in the New York, Dylan’s perception of life in New York seems negative. However, Jamie has an opposite view of the city. Hence she takes time to make Dylan have a better view of it. More so, Dylan’s perception of Jamie being wasted after a failed relationship is of a pessimistic view compared to Jamie’s.
From the studies, it notable that communication should be based on understanding one another and mindful approaches to issues, especially for strangers. Mainly, Dylan needed to improve his interpersonal skills more to enable a better relationship with Jamie. Ethically, interpersonal communication does not encourage talking ill of the other person, in or out of their presence. Again, the information shared by a third party should be accurate and permission to share the information. Additionally, for a longer relationship, persons should incorporate interpersonal communication with mutual understanding of one another. This helps the parties know the other person's critical personalities and needs in a different situation. For instance, when stressed, people have variants of ways in which they wish to be treated. The same case applies when they are angry, when they are desperate and when they are sick. Unstinting here refers to asking the people to disclose such needs and observing what they usually require without asking.
I would suggest communication skills like listening, stress management, straight-talking, emotional control, and non-verbal communication for better communication between the characters (Okoro et al., 2017). The skills would help the parties understand each other better, help one another in difficult situations, create stronger bonds and avoid unnecessary entanglements.
References
DeVito, J. A. (2019). The interpersonal communication book. Instructor , 1 , 18.
Okoro, E., Washington, M. C., & Thomas, O. (2017). The impact of interpersonal communication skills on organizational effectiveness and social self-efficacy: A synthesis. International Journal of Language and Linguistics , 4 (3), 28-32.
as Jamie, M. K., as Dylan, J. T., as Sammy, N. G., Harrelson, W., Clarkson, P., Jenkins, R., ... & Rodriguez, A. (2012). Friends with Benefits (film). The Mila Kunis Handbook-Everything you need to know about Mila Kunis , 87.
Arnold, E. C., & Boggs, K. U. (2019). Interpersonal relationships e-book: professional communication skills for nurses . Elsevier Health Sciences.
