Have you ever been in a conversation with someone who was a masterful storyteller, yet took the longest route imaginable to reach his or her conclusion? Were you so enthralled that you listened intently throughout each ebb and flow, or did you slowly checkout; temporarily registering consciousness at a seemingly pivotal point? Did you listen, hoping to interject with clarifying questions? Or, at what point were you simply hoping that it would soon be your turn?
I think it is safe to say that listening is a specialized skill because it requires the removal of self-interest in order to be able to receive a message from others in an unfiltered and unbiased way. Additionally, it has become such a refined ability because amid the noise of life, personal welfares and agendas, far too many people continue to confuse and interchange the words listening and hearing as if noting sonance and deciphering sound was the same thing.
Many of us hear our bosses, friends, significant others and even children on a daily basis, but we aren’t really listening to them. We know this to be true because in the midst of their discourse, instead of immersing ourselves in their words for the sake of context and meaning, we’ve usually already prepared a response or rebuttal before they’ve even finished speaking.
And while distances and Diasporas have been successfully bridged with the advent of advanced telecommunicating tech like mobile phone applications and video chatting, on some unexpected level, doesn’t the immediacy and impersonality of such technology seem to take away the inherent and organic nature of listening; gleaning from a conversation based on hearing the other person’s tone, vocal inflections or inarticulate utterances?
Which begs the question, if we never take the time to intently and authentically listen, how then can we claim to be knowledgeable about the things and the people with whom we engage?
