SymBALLic Convergence Theory ...

       Despite the intimidating name, Symbolic Convergence Theory (SCT) is actually quite simple. #seriously #nothard #commtheory. Okay now you are all probably wondering what in the heck I am doing with these hash tags above. Well it all goes back to the class I am writing this blog for and is actually in itself a great example of a fantasy chain, which I will explain later. But first I want to give you a little road map of how this blog will shape up. First I will be explaining multiple aspects of SCT including dramatizing messages, fantasy chains, symbolic cues, and symbolic convergence. I will also discuss how SCT creates group cohesion and is a key component in group communication. I will then end by discussing how fantasy chains can move beyond the group level to become public. As you know, the theme of this blog is sports, so I will be using a personal example from my days on my high school basketball team where fantasy chains were the norm.

So what is SCT? The main focus of SCT is on group communication and the tasks and goals of the group, meaning it looks at getting tasks done and the social functions coinciding. SCT looks at building group cohesion which is the social glue holding the group together. In a highly cohesive group, members enjoy being a part of the group, support and interact with one another, and share in group identification. This will all make a little more sense once I begin discussing my example.

       A key foundation of SCT is dramatizing messages. A dramatizing message is a comment, joke, pun, story, anecdote, song, etc. made by a group member(s) that are unrelated to work/interactions, imaginative, etc. Think of it as the comment or joke that someone makes out of left field when working in class. It may be a funny Anchorman reference as our class often reverts to, hash-tagging everything you say (like my class does) or a random joke someone shares with the group totally off-topic. For example, my senior year of basketball my team was ranked 5^th in state and we were sitting in the locker room preparing for a game with our rival who was ranked 7^th. Needless to say it was a big game. As we are sitting there in our normal group dynamic (focused, quiet, adrenaline filled) one of my teammates randomly says, “Guys I have a confession, I love Third Eye Blind”. We all looked at him a bit confused as this was unrelated to our normal game routine and preparation. He then proceeded to belt out the song "Jumper" by Third Eye Blind.  I posted a link to the song here so you can see how unrelated to basketball it was. The whole team started laughing though and began singing the song and other light-hearted hits from the late 90s. In this case the dramatized message was the statement that he loved the song and the singing of the song.

         This led us to create what’s called a fantasy chain. A fantasy chain is anything the group collectively talks about, stemming from a dramatized message. A chain occurs when the group enthusiastically picks up the dramatizing message. So when our teammate brought up the song, if we all just looked at him like he was crazy and said nothing more about it, we would not have had a fantasy chain. Instead we thought it was hilarious and continued on with it by contributing our own dramatic messages or in this case funny random songs such as, “Getting Jiggy with it” by Will Smith. 

This pattern of us singing random songs, unrelated to basketball from our past established what’s called a fantasy theme. A fantasy theme is exactly what you might expect; it is the content of a dramatizing message that sparks the chain. In our case the theme would have been random songs. 

      After the joke slowly came to an end we went out and dominated our game, but the joke didn’t end there. You see there are things called symbolic cues which are triggers that set off group members to respond as they did when they first shared a fantasy chain. Cues can be code words, non-verbal signals, etc. For our team, I was responsible for creating our warm up CD's to be played over the courts speaker system before home games. I thought it would be funny to create our CD with nothing but those songs we talked about from our fantasy chain. So the CD started with Jumper from Third-eye blind and progressed to some other extremely non-basketball related songs. The first song of Jumper on the CD immediately acted as a symbolic cue for our whole team when they heard it come on. It served to create a bond between the team as it was something that we all shared together. This is how symbolic convergence is key in successful group communication. It creates inside jokes, bonds, and a commonality between group members that otherwise may not be there.

Now imagine all those students singing Jumper!

Sometimes we can see fantasy chains move from beyond the small group level to become public. This is usually done through forms of mass media like TV or internet related media outlets. But they can become public through good ole’ fashion word of mouth as well. Reverting back to my basketball example of the song jumper, we can see how it moved to more of a public chain. As we begin playing the song in our pre-game ritual our fans began becoming increasingly interested in why we were playing such a random song. Through word of mouth the story spread and our fans embraced the chain and began suggesting songs to play as well as singing along with the song Jumper. This created a bond between us and our fans as well! Other teams would come in to play us and were so confused why our team was warming up to Jumper by Third-eye Blind while our crowd was singing it. Here you can see a picture of our student section which was rather large for a high school, so the chain was clearly a public one! 

The chain helped us create a bond with our fans as well!

When we look at Symbolic Convergence Theory it is important to realize it is happening all around us. I think it can be a valuable tool for sports teams as well. As my example shows, a fantasy chain can be used to create a unique bond between teammates that may not have existed otherwise.

Until next time, stay cool my friends.

-Zach