Bypassing, Essay Example

Bypassing is one of many communication barriers that may be present.  A communication barrier is defined as something that impedes the process of communication.  Thus, regardless of how subtle or obvious the communication barrier is, such barriers can undermine communication efforts in a variety of contexts.

Bypassing is defined as something in language that has one meaning for the sender and another meaning for the recipient.  It is commonly found in slang words, to which the recipient is not cognizant.  It can, however, be extended to more normal types of interchanges in communication.

One example can be seen for bypassing.  For instance, if a customer were to enter a store and ask for direction to the “hardware” section, it could be taken in a manner not intended.  The recipient may think immediately of computer-related hardware, or hardware in a home improvement sense.  Thus, communication would suffer from this barrier.

Others are easily found in slang.  The word “cool,” for example, does not always refer to temperature.  The sender could be referring to something as interesting, which is linked to the slang definition of cool.

Overall bypassing is one of the many communication barriers that are present.  Others, such as emotion, may be more expressive or obvious.  However bypassing can indeed undermine legitimate attempts at effective communication.  Errors in the meaning of a message characterizes bypassing, which is one of many communication barriers seen.