Blog Post #1- Arwen Vanderbeek

     Growing up my family had this joke, " If the TV is on then dad's not listening." When I was little I thought it was funny. As I got at little older I still found it funny and my mom and I would joke about things involving him to see when he would pay attention. I'm 20 now and it drives me crazy. Their have been several times where dad will ask me a question and then forget that he is talking to me because there is a screen in front of him. 

     It is now 2018 and screens are everywhere in all shapes and all sizes. The story about my dad was just silly dad things but now I am realizing it something everyone does. We go to dinner with our families and friends to we sit on our phones. Conversations revolve around the screens in our pocket. Parents would sometimes rather give their child an Ipad before talking and playing with them. Linear communication of sender, messenger than recover is becoming the main way we communicate. Passive listening, sitting and listening, is becoming the norm when it should be active listening, rephrasing and checking facts, even though it may be considered old-fashioned. 

     In class we talked about hearing versus listening. Hearing is something that is strictly biological where listening is comprehending what the person is saying. In Julian Treasure's TED talk he really advances on the idea that, "we are loosing our listening." He states that we only really retain 25% of what we hear so not matter how hard we try it is still to hard for use to be great listeners. That doesn't mean we should still try to be the best listeners.

     Without listening or even hearing then their would be no need to communicate with each other at all. Humans are social creatures who love to talk, laugh, tell stories but most of all we love to be heard. If we aren't trying our best to really listen to those around us then why should we expect anyone to listen to us?