Blog Post #1

Listening is something that is very complex and can relate to many aspects of everyone’s lives.   Many people do not realize it, but this is a skill that is developed over time.  In Chapter 4 of  “Communication A Critical/ Cultural Introduction” the author stated, “modes of listening are not simply strategies we develop and deploy on our own.  They are shaped or constituted by a variety of social and cultural factors” ( Warren, J, Fassett, D,  66).   Often times I do not think that we are really actively listening to what is actually going on around us.  Julian Treasure mentions in his Ted talk that we spend 60 percent of our communication time, but only retain 25 percent of what we hear.  This really isn’t a high percentage of what we retain when you think about it.  Everyday that we are in class, we are listening to lectures and discussion, but are we actually retaining what we are listening to? This mean that we are not making meaning out of everything that we hear around us, that can effect our perception of society and the culture that we live in. 

This chapter and discussion about listening made me realize that much of what we say is not actually being heard.  When reading this chapter in the textbook, I first thought back to my first communications class last fall because this was something our class focused on heavily.  I remember talking about the various modes of listening and I personally related to this topic because I often find myself at a lot of concerts.  Being from Bakersfield California, county music is a staple to our town so when other artists come to preform they have to be aware of the fan base that have developed their modes of listening primarily drawing them to the country genre.  I know this is something that I personally relate to, especially growing up really only listening to country music. 

However, this directly relates to the context of the listening situation because it can often times effect our perceptions, expectations and understanding of certain things around us.  This is something that we do not necessarily think about though, because we do not find ourselves sitting in a situation thinking about having to listen it is just something that we subconsciously do.  For example when we are in class, there are often other noises around us that we do hear even if we are not focused on them; like a pen clicking or someone typing notes on their laptop or someone tapping their foot on the ground.  Some times these noises serve as distractions to us and take away from what we actually should and need to be listening to.

Here is the link to the Ted talk that I referenced in my post: https://www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_5_ways_to_listen_better#t-21759