Shuyi Sun- Reflecting on “Grounding in Communication”

In brief, this paper examines grounding, which is constructing a mutual understanding, in communication. Establishing, updating, and engaging in a common contextual ground in communication has many steps and nuances. In this paper, Clark analyzed in extreme details the properties of a conversation. Furthermore, techniques are introduced for more effective communication. To converse, one must go beyond formulating and sending a message, collaborative comprehension need to exist. 

It is not hard to see how the concept of grounding has been attempted to be applied in digital communication; for example, notifying someone the other person has seen the message or is typing. Indeed, lacking grounding features are the roots of what makes certain modes of communication harder or easier than others. I feel that digital communication has the capacity to provide grounding techniques that are not possible in real life, while certain subtle real life capabilities will probably never be possible technically. For example, the ability to see a sent text afterwards gives people more time to process the message. However, one was not able to take in the speaker’s tone or emotions. Like stated in the paper, gestures, gaze, and other nuances are powerful methods of acknowledgement or assertions of attention. There are possibly more sensory information being sent that our consciousness might not even realize, these are difficult to replicate digitally. In short, I feel that digital media lessens certain restraints of grounding, while raises other ones that may not have previously existed. 

The concept of least effort was epiphanic for me. I realized that it is applicable to many subjects even beyond communication. Most relevantly, academic research values parsimoniousness, and softwares aim for highest performance through lowest complexity. To add to “address your point with the lowest effort,” I feel that it can be generalized as a concept of trying to have the largest relevant impact with the lowest effort. 

Least collaborative effort seem like a concept that could be useful in team building. I was reminded of the Team Dating (link) study in that different people will have varying levels of total collaborative effort. Computationally, I wonder if this collaborative effort could be measured based on past communications and personal preferences for ways to communicate. I feel like this metric could also be implemented to measure the ease of communicative use for social networks and messaging applications.

Grounding references is a concept that is tightly connected to my team’s project. We aim to use real life grounding references as a building ground to employ digital communication through AR. Alternative descriptions may become confusing and require a high amount of collaborative effort. If we are able to see the reference and eliminate the need for description, there will be less collaborative effort. Indicative gestures would also be replaced, in our project, with digital indicators.