Importance Of Active Listening In Our Society

2040 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The importance of active listening

Active Listening in Our Society Today
Benjamin A. Ingraham
Drexel University

When thinking about a topic for this paper, I realized that we all go through our daily lives having lots of conversations with friends, co-workers, and our family members. Unfortunately, most of the time we don’t listen as well as we could or even should at times. We seem often distracted by our environment, with things such as TV, the Internet, or our phones. I believe that we are listening so-to-speak, but we aren’t giving them our full attention. Hence my topic for this paper, a skill called active listening. When thinking about what active listening actually is, we see that it’s all about building understanding and trust of the listener. As I present
We see our own habits have been developed since we were born when it comes to listening. Whether that’s listening with one ear and doing something with the other, or not looking someone in the eyes when they talk, or maybe interrupting someone mid-sentence. Habits such as these are documented amongst many people, and are established enough in our daily lives that we perform them without thinking. But in the end, we see that these habits are undesirable almost all of the time, and almost always lead to poor listening skills throughout life’s journey. In terms of the number of reasons for ineffective listening, most of them do not apply equally to all listeners for that matter, and we see extent to which they apply and vary from situation to situation dependent on the speaker, topic, and the listener as well. (Casperz,
One main way of listening that we see in our society is called Passive listening, which is little more than just hearing something. Passive listening by definition, is the skill of listening without reacting or really allowing someone to speak, without interrupting and giving your own two cents like many of us do when we are having an argument or maybe just a casual conversation where you may disagree on something not really notable. We also see that while passive listening is mainly a one-way communication technique, where the receiver of the info doesn’t provide feedback the opposite, Active listening, is drastically different as we have seen so far in this essay. (Sullivan, 2011) Active listening opposite of passive listening, includes responses from you the listener that demonstrate what you have heard, and if you can recall what the speaker has been saying to

Show More
Related

  • Insensitive Listening Exemplified in an Episode of Two and a Half Men

    794 Words  | 2 Pages

    As Two and a Half Men’s episode “Love isn’t Blind, Love’s Retarded” adduces even in a short ten minute time frame pre-occupational thought, ambushing, and insensitive listening happen far more frequently than any speaker would hope. Fortunately, there are ways in which to avoid using such actions or listening skills and one of those is simply by learning about them. The next time it’s my turn to listen thoughtfully I’m going to try my best, what about you?

    Read More

  • Mindless Listening Importance

    2029 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Importance of Listening for Professional and Personal Relationships Listening is essential for communication, yet is a skill in which most are lacking. Though we are listening constantly, knowing what to listen to requires an enormous amount of discipline and practice, which is vital for communicating effectively. Learning to listen will benefit all relationships from professional to personal and not being able to listen effectively can cause these relationships to deteriorate. “Indeed, although aware of the instrumentality of listening, even trained communicators often fail to listen correctly or at opportune times” (Cline, 2013). In order for all of areas of communication in an individual to flourish, listening must be emphasized.

    Read More

  • Listening in Communication

    1276 Words  | 3 Pages

    A vital aspect of interpersonal communication is the style in which one listens. While every individual possesses their own preferred method of listening in communication, it can be enlightening to analyze our own strengths and weaknesses so as to maximize effectual communication. Within the confines of four main listening style categories, I have chosen those which best describe my own personal listening style.

    Read More

  • LISTENING STYLES

    1046 Words  | 3 Pages

    Communication in all relationship can be successful when our listener get the message that we want to convey and it is not so much about what we want to say. Listening is a unique process because it involves psychological and voluntary process that goes beyond simply reacting to sounds. It includes understanding, analyzing, evaluating, and responding. As a human, we will use different listening styles, depending on our preferences and purposes. Listening styles refer to the different ways people listen and analyze the content of a conversation. Usually, these styles either have to do with the way listeners choose to receive the message or with how they analyze the message. Listening is very important because we listen in order to establish and communicate power. There are few types of listening that can be used in order to communicate effectively.

    Read More

  • Compare The Three Models Of Decision Making As Articulated By Allison Case Study

    1549 Words  | 4 Pages

    Active listening is “an approach to listening that involves one person on the receiving end on the communication engaging in a series of conscious actions intended to clarify and confirm the meaning of the message being received.” (Denhardt, pg. 287) An active listener shows that they are understanding of what it going on and that they are fully engaged in the conversation. There are seven principles of effective listening. These principles are (1) have a reason or purpose for listening, (2) suspend judgment initially, (3) resist distractions, (4) wait before responding, (5) rephrase what you hear in your own words, (6) seek important themes, and (7) use the thinking-speak differential (Denhardt, pg. 287).

    Read More

  • Leadership Effective Listening

    1732 Words  | 4 Pages

    Effective listening is something that requires to be learned. Particularly as in today times people work and live in busy environments. People practice ignoring what others say and do not listen to them. The capability to listen cautiously will permit employees to comprehend the assignments greater and what is anticipated of them; develop relationships with co-workers, superiors, and customers; display backing; work better in a group based atmosphere; find a resolution to difficulties with clients, co-workers, and superiors; replying to inquiries; and discovering underlying significance in what others say. A good listener understands that being observant to everything the other person is not speaking is as significant as being observant to what the person does say.

    Read More

  • Nursing Therapeutic Communication Skills

    774 Words  | 2 Pages

    Active listening is described as interpreting both the content and the feeling in which the patient is expressing without bias or judgement;

    Read More

  • Importance Of Empathy In Social Care

    1232 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to (Talking therapy 2014) active listening means using a set of skills that encourage the person you are listening to talk, to help them feel heard and understood. It is called ‘active’ because you intentionally do things to help them feel able to talk, and because you engage with all your attention on what the speaker is saying, how they are acting, and how they are feeling.

    Read More

  • Importance Of Active Mentoring

    1153 Words  | 3 Pages

    Being an active listener gives the opportunity for the mentee to tell their story. Pask & Joy (2007) explain that active listening includes listening for intention by ensuring that both mentor and mentee understand what it is that is being said. Therefore, clarifying, reflecting back, paraphrasing and summarising are key tools to the mentor’s toolbox. As

    Read More

  • Active Listening Essay

    1440 Words  | 3 Pages

    As a professional in today’s society, it is greatly important to be able to communicate effectively with other professionals, with clients, and with those that are encountered in daily living. In order to communicate in a proper manner, not only is talking and non-verbal communication, but a large aspect is the ability to listen. Listening is a vital task in order to build a relationship and find meaning in someone else’s words. In order to find this meaning one must follow the characteristics of active listening, face the challenges to listening, and reflect upon one’s own listening skills.

    Read More

  • Reflection Paper On Listening Styles

    834 Words  | 2 Pages

    Listening can be difficult or challenging no matter who or what situation you may encounter. In this refection I have utilized Baker (1971) and Waston (1995) Listening Style. I chose to use the four distinct styles because it will improve my listening and communication skills in personal and work relationships. After many years of not be able to understand my spouse listening and communication skills, I am now somewhat able to effectively communicate with him. The best way to understand

    Read More

  • Listening Skills Essay

    1775 Words  | 4 Pages

    There are five concepts of listening that play an important role in the communication process. Sharpening our listening skills can benefit our professional lives and our customer service skills. Various techniques can help us improve our listening skills. Active listening involves sitting forward, making eye contact, nodding to prompt the speaker, asking clarifying questions, and taking notes. Distractions and personal biases can hinder our ability to listen effectively. Furthermore, effective listening is directly related to memory; improving our listening skills and practicing memory techniques often can dramatically increase our ability to capture the speakers message.

    Read More

  • The Importance of Effective Communication

    628 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of the main aspects in communicating is listening. An effective listener is one who, not only comprehends how the speaker feels but, also understands what they are stating. Building a strong connection between the speaker and the listener is one of the first steps to become a good listener. By building this connection speakers should first be in an environment with open minded listeners, it makes them feel more comfortable to state their opinions, feelings and ideas. Listeners should avoid being judgmental. The individual does not have to agree with the ideas, values or opinions of the speaker; however, to fully understand them, one must put aside their criticism. Speakers will believe that they can trust the listeners with their information when they know that they will not be judged. Miscommunication happens frequently, listene...

    Read More

  • Hearing vs. Listening

    945 Words  | 2 Pages

    Those not thoroughly educated in communication tend to confuse the terms “hearing” and “listening.” Although they appear to mean the same thing, utilize the same body part, and are both required for functional communication, there is a great difference between these two actions. Hearing involves the perception of sound using the ears, while listening is based upon giving attention to the sound being perceived. Additionally, because these concepts are different, there are also several different ways of improving hearing and listening. Thus, there are several differences between these two concepts, and it is important to signify these differences in order to practice effective communication.

    Read More

  • Listening Process

    1718 Words  | 4 Pages

    Listening is one of the most powerful tools of communication and is a process that is used to receive, convey a meaning, and respond to both verbal and nonverbal messages. It is what we choose to do and it requires more work than speaking. Oftentimes, people simply misunderstand the difference between listening and hearing. Hearing is a passive process that takes in sounds and noises and listening is what you choose to do. This selective process includes 5 phases that can be acquired for us to become effective listeners in the future. The 5 phases are attending, understanding, remembering, critically evaluating (listening), and responding. Once the 5 different areas are understood, we will become aware of what needs to change and how we can change them. This will also allow us to improve our listening skills in the workplace, school, at home, etc.

    Read More

More about Importance Of Active Listening In Our Society

Open Document