Defining Conversation

A conversing; informal talk is the definition of "conversation" that Webster's New World Dictionary and Thesaurus published in their book. Right away I was struck by the word "informal." Informal is casual and relaxed which is usually tied with lingo or slang words. For the past few decades the issue of using such language has been thought to be unintellectual or sometimes offensive. Parents hate when their kids speak in ways they do not understand and new words are constantly arising that butcher the english language. Such as "cool" or "sucks", two words commonly used that have taken on a completley different meaning. "Totally" and Definatley" have been shortened to "tot" and "def." The old way of speaking seems to be too wordy and long for an impatient young American teenager to say in this day and age. But does this really matter? As long as they are speaking to another human being who can understand what is being said than aren't they holding a conversation? The definition of conversation is very broad. It does not have to mean an intimate or deeeply intuned session with another person, it just has to be talk. Conversation needs to be between two or more people who are able to respond. It needs to be active and both sides have to be engaged.
Sometimes it's hard to distinguish the difference between conversation and communication. Recently I took a class where African drummers speak to each other with rythms and tell each other what is happening around them without using words. Would this classify as a conversation since both people are actively responding? What about artists? When they make art as a form of expression they are speaking to their veiwers. Sometimes they invoke their veiwers who in response create work that becomes a reflection. Yet in both these cases their is a slight unassurance of what the other person is saying. The drummers could be misinterperting one another or the artist may never know exactly what is really being expressed. Conversation is a way of communicating but a true conversation must be clearly understood by another who responds immediatley.