A long time ago, in a land far away, you had to talk to someone or be physically close to that person to misunderstand him or her.

With the advancement of technologies, we have the honor and privilege of being able to misunderstand people that we have never even met. We share online space, but we do not have deep enough relationships with one another to offer grace when a misunderstanding occurs.

Misunderstanding abounds in every chat group, post, and comment section scattered across the internet. The places that were built to help us connect socially and gain knowledge provide an equal opportunity for us to misunderstand one another.

misunderstanding: failure to correctly understand the actions or words of someone.

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Two Sides To Every Coin

It is possible for a person to misunderstand his or her dreams or emotions, but usually, a misunderstanding requires at least two people to be involved.

Every party involved believes his/her interpretation or understanding is correct and that the other person(s) must be at fault. We never, ever want to admit how our shortfalls lead to misunderstanding.

There are two primary sources of misunderstanding, but in my personal experience, a combination of the two is the most common culprit:

• failed transfer of information by the sender
• failed acquisition of the same information by the receiver

The Sender

The sender often ...

• believes that he/she is a great communicator (which may or may not be true)
• believes that the recipient is ready to receive the message (which may or may not be true)
• fails to consider outside distractions that can interfere with the message
• moves on even when the recipient needs more time to process the message
• feel offended when the recipient questions the message

The Recepient

The recipient often ...

• assumes he/she has a proper understanding of the topic and therefore stops interacting
• starts thinking about follow-up questions or comments while the other person is talking
• does not ask for additional context when he/she does not understand something
• assumes the worst of the message sender and his/her intentions
• limits the conversation by not thinking about the sender's point of view

What we all bring to the table

In order to help alleviate some of this misunderstanding, we must first admit that we all bring baggage to the conversation and then take steps to limit how our personal baggage impacts our ability to communicate.

• preconceived ideas
• lack of knowledge
• prejudice
• hunger
• anger
• pain
• distraction
• lack of information or context

Life happens, so we will not be able to eliminate all of the things I mentioned above, but if we let all of these barriers run wild, I can guarantee that misunderstanding will run rampant.

I want to hear from you

Let's continue the conversation in the comments section.

1. Do you often find yourself in the middle of a misunderstanding?
2. What barrier creates the most misunderstanding for you?
3. What steps are you taking to overcome that barrier?

Thanks for stopping by!
@SumatraNate