Piggy backing on last week's post...
One of the most important skills that you can develop is the fine skill of listening. I am not referring to being able to lie in bed and listen to an entire album by your favorite artist. Although this can be a wonderful way to de-stress, it does little to help you progress professionally. I am referring to the skill of actively listening in those situations in which you are expected to interact with others, glean valuable information (such as the news, speeches, education), or take further action based on what you heard (meetings, etc.).
Most of us probably take listening for granted. We hear "stuff" all day long. We unconsciously react to specific sounds day in and day out (alarm clock, car horn, email/text notifications, bells). But, are we really listening? Are we allowing our bodies to truly tap in to sounds and then using our minds to make sense of them? When someone is speaking to us do we truly listen to what they are saying or do we just hear a voice?
I have a theory about listening...I think that as we are exposed to more noise we listen less. Sure, we hear the noise, but we don't listen. For example, many of my students have mentioned, more so over the last couple of years, that listening to music helps them to concentrate on school work. This may be true. It would be wrong of me to argue what is best for someone, especially when it comes to something as important as individual work. But, what I can and will argue is that the ubiquitous exposure to background sound can condition the listener to engage in auditory multitasking. In other words, if you are so used to listening to music in the background, what is going to stop your brain from pushing other, more important sounds, to the background as well. We are very much creatures that must be trained. Are we, in fact, training ourselves to listen less by surrounding ourselves with more noise?
9 comments:
I am guilty. Guilty of listening to background music to further concentrate myself; however, I was not always like this. I feel that rather than listening attentively, many people today have trouble listening and responding accordingly to what they just listened. Conversation has turned repetitive in today's society, and teenagers especially rather listen to John Mayer than John their best friend.
Alright, I'm here to tell you that you're theory of noise is right. I read this post yesterday and decided that today I was going to listen in detail to as much sounds as possible. By doing this, I understood people more clearly, I spoke with different tones that portrayed different emotions on a subliminal level, and I was able to find my alarm clock faster when it began to ring dreadfully. I will say it's somewhat difficult at first since people usually go throughout their day focusing on other subjects but their senses.
I don't know at which time in my life something changed, but I will admit i have fallen a victim of not listening. From televisions, ipods,cellphones and adults talking to them, teens have ended up zoning things out. I will admit, my mom will be talking to me abou something and after she is talking, I remember nothing of what she just told me. In the world today, we hear so many things, all day, all the time, but we are falling behind in listening and really paying attention.
I agree that I do tune out some important sounds because I am used to listening to music as I work. Some of the time I don't pay very close attention to what people are saying. I hear them talking but I don't process what they are actually saying. I also find this to be very harmful because I sometimes miss the important things people are saying.
Teenagers today hear everything, but few listen. I feel like a lot of the things I say to people goes in one ear and out the other. I believe peoples' emotions show through their words and body language. You just have to listen.
I completely agree with the fact that we don't listen. We hear noise, but we don't understand what exactly is going on. People will usually listen to what you have to say and look at you, but they will be thinking about something completely different. They might not even care about what you have to say. Others may not even look at you while you're talking. As you said about us being so used to just hearing background noises, this is true. We tend to block out things that really matter, but we need to learn how to pay attention to certain details. Everyone feels as if listening isn't a priority, but it really is. If you expect others to listen to what you have to say, you should do the same.
I can definitely relate to what you are saying about people blocking out sound. I personally can't focus on any work with music playing. I love music and I rather listen to it by itself because I focus on the finite details of the song. I have noticed recently that it's more common for friends to space out when you are talking to them probably because they have classically conditioned themselves to cancel out any sound besides what they are thinking. Unfortunately, this canceling out of noise affects the ability to really understand a piece of literature.
I have heard this argument before, but I have never thought about it in the way you mentioned. The thought of further zoning out more important sounds never crossed my mind. Usually, when I have the chance, i do like to listen to some tunes while I complete work; however, I will take this into consideration and maybe communicate with others about the assignment instead.
I believe that that is a great truth; the human race has evolved to hear more and listen less. Sometimes we even change what we do hear into to something else, hear what we want to hear. I blame these consequences on technology. It provides us with activities that we rather perform over having actual conversations (video games, cell phones, television, etc). Sometimes when we are having conversations this object distract us from it, if you’re talking to someone and get a text or you phone rings you answer it, and actually stop listening to the conversation.
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