Closing your mouth by opening your eyes...

`Do you know how to listen?
Better question would actually be, do you know what listening is?

`Most of the time, people hear what someone says, but they don't really listen. Could this possibly be why instant messages, texting, and other such written communications have become wildly popular. If you overall want to become a better listener, then I would suggest reading The 10 Step Program to Becoming A Better Listener

`I would like to take a quick look at one of these tips that highlights (without knowing) why text has become so popular.

#2 Avoid Planning Counterarguments: It is a natural response to automatically start planning a counterargument as soon as something is mentioned. As hard as it may seem, don’t. Mentally record your disagreement and formulate a response later after the whole message has been received.

`This tip is interesting because it deals with a fundamental difference in how we communicate, and why we find ourselves ever increasingly addicted to text based communications. We all have cell phones, and Voip isn't exactly rocket science. We have all the technology needed to talk to each other whenever we want, and yet we choose text. This is because text allows us to complete the thought, and send. When we use text, gone is the worry, and hassle, of interruption. In a verbal conversation, we only get once chance to hear, and process the spoken word, unless you specifically ask the speaker to repeat (which can be distracting). On the contrary, in text communication, we are given the ability to read, re-read, and compare our response before we actually send the complete thought, this does not afford the audience the ability to interject, and interrupt, as well as form a conclusion, or rebuttal during the speech. This levels the playing field so that we can all have an equal platform to speak on.


Here is a movie that you can watch online, I wrote this entry before I saw this, how appropriate that it exactly deals with the very subject I wrote on. Enjoy!