The Importance Of Listening

Listening is a far more difficult art form than what it is typically perceived as. Studies show that people spend most of their lives listening but not actually processing what is said, not quite mastering the beautiful and intricate skill. People typically decide to spend their time doing other things than listening, this can be because of the cultural habits imbedded into them. Learning how to listen takes many skills; critical thinking, a positive attitude, and most of all, understanding others. Listening is not that hard of a skill to master, but it is difficult to learn it when one has already picked up on negative conversational techniques. Among those many negative techniques, article “Why People Do Not Listen” notes, “When whe are

Listening to Reply”. Grohol sums up this idea

Often the listeners take what is said to heart and make it a less than great experience for all parties involved. Perhaps one cannot listen with a blank mind and open heart because they are so worried about their own struggles, worries, problems, dreams, and agendas (Daskal). People's’ minds tend to full as they’re listening because they are taking what is said to heart and creating a reply that summarizes their own thoughts, only taking in parts of what they hear to will help their argument. Listening for only what one wants to hear can be known as confirmation bias (Listening to Understand vs. Listening to Reply). Confirmation bias is a huge issue when learning how to listen, especially if they come from a culture that only knows how to argue. How one reacts to what they hear may either add to the problem or dissolve it, contributing to the relationship between the people even if they do not own that issue (Grohol). Listening with a clouded mind and a ready-to-argue mindset is not the proper way to listen, unless they are ready to ruin the interpersonal