Obstinate Audience

I think it is funny how far research has come over the past fifty or so years. The mention of the idea of the passive audience is interesting to look at. People just going about their lives passively consuming what they see without any sort of opinion. These activities are viewed only as ways to be mindless and get away from the perrils of everyday life. It was actually progressive thinking in that time to think that an audience forms an opinion about the forms of media they consume.
The idea of an obstinate audience is something that seems like it would be common sense. The idea that consumers have an opinion and make decisions that dictate the media that they are exposed to follows the idea of human thought. What person wouldn't think about what movie they are going to go see or what type of music they are going to listen to. While this idea lost popularity over time and was thought by theorists to be incomplete, it does show a step in the right direction. This is just a small example of how much communication theory has evolved over time.

Cool Mediums

I agree with McLuhan that the format of a medium determines the content of the message. In order to have the television be successful you start with the television. The format would be a screen that you stare at. In order to have that screen capture interest, you have to have content that is interesting. In this way format determines what kind of content you have to have. The format of the TV also allows for a lot of content to be accessed, that may not be able to be accessed through another medium. While i agree with the fact that the format determines that content of the message, i do not know if I agree with the idea of television being a "cool" medium.
The fact that the radio was suggested as a hot medium as compared to TV's cool distinction doesn't make sense to me. While TV may stimulate more senses in being able to see and listen at the same time, the content can be just as differentiated in commercial play. Outside of commercials, TV shows are mostly based on one topic. This is the same as radio. I don't really understand the standing as TV being a cool medium.

Online Relationships

While I communicate online on social networking sites, I don't really spend that much time communicating on the internet as a whole. I prefer face to face communication and usually have too busy of a schedule to spend time online. I have never had a friendship that was exclusively online. I never got addicted to the computer lifestyle like many of my friends did with the online games and chatrooms. I think this is because online communication is very limited.
In a regular old style relationship, you see a person in a face to face contact and hear their voice on the phone. In a online relationship, you never see or hear the person if it is only text based. Of course there are ways where you can communicate over video chat and things. I just feel like you have to make more of a connection with a person than just communicating through an online medium. I don't feel like I spend enough time online to maintain a relationship with a person with that being the only medium

Feedback

Feedback is something that comes with age and is learned over time. When you are younger and people criticize you, you tend to take it more personally. People are scared to criticize you to your face and sometimes do it behind your back which may cause conflict if it comes back around. This has to do with owning your own message. You need to say what you think in a polite way and not put it on other people. People often apologize for their own feeling which also doesn't really make sense. You feel the way you feel for a reason and you shouldn't have to feel sorry for it.
Another part that stood out in this part of the textbook was the evaluating or interpreting your partner. This is a case in my relationship. Often times my girlfriend will ask me "what's the matter?" I won't feel upset maybe just tired. If this questioning continues I might get annoyed and then really get upset.

Filters

As far as choosing a romantic partner, sociological cues come into place. This has to do with proximity and how youcan maintain a long distance relationship. This is something i have tried before and will never try again. I think there needs to be more connection that that. As far as preinteraction cues, I am very picky here. I look for a girl that doesn't look too high maintenance. Any girl that has tons of makeup on with a designer purse and appears as if she is shopping all of the time really leads me to believe that these people are too concerned with material possesions and I think there is a lot more to life than that. This plays into cognitive cues as well. This kind of material attitude often times leads these types of people to think they are somehow better than other people.
Ducks realtional dissolution model is pretty accurate, although much of the time there is a lack of the dyadic phase. Partners often don't explain the reasons why they want to get out of the relationship, they simply leave. There is always the grave dressing phase when people reflect on what went wrong in the relationship and whatthey did wrong. This is a very accurate model though and i do agree with it.

Complementary Pattern

I think the rigid complementarity would be the hardest pattern to change. The submissive partner may very well be the one with a less mild personality. The dominant partner has a stronger personality and this makes it hard to change. Unless each partner is willing to change thier personality drastically this problem will continue for a long time. The symmetrical pattern would be the most damaging to a relationship
The symmetrical pattern would be most damaging because it involves constant competititon. When tempers flare and there may be hurtful things said. With the members always at each others throats, it would be very damaging to a relationship. This would also be the most damaging to the sefl esteem of the members involved. They constantly have to hear the negative things said about them in constant competition. Hearing these things all the time will definetely be damaging to self esteem. Symmetrical paterns seem to cause the most damage