Hearing vs. Listening

Something that caught my eyes from chapter 4 in Communication: A Critical/ Cultural Introduction was, "we live in and are surrounded by sounds" (pg 63).  After reading further we came to the understanding that hearing and listening are two different things.  When we hear a noise we are probably not going to be able to identify it soon after it happens, but when we listen to a sound it will have a certain meaning to us and this will cause us to remember.

This reading made me realize how much of my daily life I am not paying attention to.  For example most days I will be wearing headphones around my apartment or on my way to class and this closes me off to parts of my life.  This is stopping me from hearing and listening to the things that surround me.  After the reading I have learned how this is not helping me in any way.  I am making giving myself a disadvantage by not being able to listen to my surroundings.  This is not good because if I am walking across a street I might not be able to hear a siren or if I am leaving a classroom I might not be able to hear someone calling my name.  By blocking off sounds with my headphones I am losing my ability to know how to properly listen.

In a Ted Talk we learn that one thing that can benefit people's listening skills is to sit in silence for a few minutes everyday.  By doing this we are learning how to listen again.  We a making are ears more sensitive to sounds that surround us.

I found this chapter in the book to be very important because listening is not one of my strongest skills and it made me more aware of ways I can listen instead of just hear.  This is important to study because we all need to be aware of ways that can help us listen.  If we all become more aware of how to be better listeners then it will have an effect that is big enough to change public places.  Having people be better listeners will also create them to be more attentive and aware of our surroundings.  The bigger picture of this is that accidents of all sorts can be avoided if we are all aware of what is happening around us.