The art of listening can never be confused with the art of hearing. The following paper aims to analyse a Ted Talk video orated by Julian Treasure based on his personal opinion of art of listening and referenced towards refining the analytical skills of an individual. The TED Talk video mainly deals with active listening and its importance in daily life and tricks which can be used to practice the art of active listening. The paper will initiate with highlighting important points stated in the video followed by personal realization and its subsequent contradictions with the philosophies of beliefs nurtured deep inside the mind.
According to Kawamichi et al. (2015), listening is a part of mental processing under which the information that has been extracted through auditory impulses is processed through the intellectual thinking skills. In relation to the same topic, Raniereet al. (2015) argued that people are slowly losing their ability to listen. Approximately 60% of the communication time must be indulged into active listening but it was found that within this 60%, people are not listening attentively, what they are doing is hearing. Thus, the majority of the individuals can retain only 25% of what they have heard during conversation (Kawamichi et al., 2015). Extinction in the art of listening is making it difficult for the people to pay attention to subtle, quite and an understated part hidden in the conversation. The reason behind the selection of this video is, it provides a deep insight about how the loss art of listening can be gained back against the backdrop of the present day jet age, where communication mainly occurs through text messages or emails and people have less time in paying a heed to other people words.
Julian Treasure in his Ted Talk video highlighted the importance of listening and strategies that can be used for active listening. Treasure also succinctly classifies the difference between hearing and listening. He said, listening is a kind of pattern recognition which is opposed to hearing. The concept highlighted by Treasure finds prominence in the findings of Heald and Nusbaum (2014). Kolers (2014) stated that pattern recognition is a crucial aspect of active listening and it helps to draw the relationship with the speech perception and use of non-verbal auditory patterns. In his video, Treasure also stated that conversation is guided by a range of different filters like language, culture, beliefs, attitudes and values. People pay attention based on use and the presence of these filters. Treasure also stated that listening means understanding and it assists in improving the analytical skills of a person. In relation to listening, Figueroa (2014) argued that, listening is a thinking function and requires proper analytical skills. Tyagi (2013) highlighted that hearing is an indispensable part of active listening but majority of the people fail to practice this and the information delivered by one person, fails to reach to a meaningful conclusion to others. This can be explained by lack of focus. The focus is something that that can be practiced through refining the skills of concentration. Attention increases focus and focus helps in active listening.
From my personal understanding, I want to highlight that the facts and figures highlighted by Treasure in his video holds significant prominence in the present day perspective. At present, people are busy in broadcasting their personal achievement and this is hampering the art of active listening. When they take break from advertising their own skills, they dig inside their cell phones, either surfing social media or listening to music. During my participation in scientific seminars, I have noticed that people are pretending -they are listening to the oration while the actually they are thinking of something else. I can say this strongly before, after every 5 minutes they are both surfing their phones and talking with others. An active listening involves thinking in deep and this should be done without interruption. In his video, Treasure highlighted that with the introduction of the technology or recording, the art of listening is gradually becoming extinct. I completely agree with this statement. The avenue of recording the audio and now there is audio-visual recording, have generated reluctance among the listeners. People feel that at present they can relax a bit and record the seminar and after that as per the convenience, they will listen to the speech. This moment of convenience never comes in their life. Moreover, listening live is something different from listening recorded files which can be manipulated (Jacobs, 2014). Thus as a whole I can deeply connect with the video of Treasure and second his opinion about the importance of active listening.
Though I value the concept of listening, but I thing listening actively creates fatigue. But my philosophy is hit hard by the concept proposed by Treasure. Treasure told listening increases analytical skills. My thought process about active listening is mainly guided by the findings of Hornsby (2013). Bodie et al. (2013) stated that for the normal populations who have average concentration level, the act of active creates fatigue in them or headache. The level of fatigue increases when this occurs admits a noisy environment. This is because, brain is require to conduct backstage operations that helps in selective processing of specific sounds and subsequent filtering of irrelevant sounds. However, Treasure proposed a completely different concept as he says listening is a feelings o joy irrespective of the cacophony of the surrounding environment.
The main message extracted from the video is importance of practising the art of listening this is because, “active listening creates understanding”. Three approaches proposed by Treasure for practising active listening observance of 3 minutes of silence each day, listening to a mixer of music in order to study the difference in the tone of sounds and enjoying the mundane sounds. It can be noted that importance of observance of silence can be related with the importance of practicing meditation which helps in increasing the concentration skills. Listening to different mixture of music also helps to increase the level of concentration and practising listening skills under the cacophony.
Conclusion
Thus from the above discussion, it can be concluded that the practice of listening is getting extinct gradually. The present human race is getting more involved in their personal advertisements or is remaining pre-occupied with other activities. These activities hamper the art of listening. Decline in the act of listening means decrease in the analytical skills of an individual. Thus in the absence of the analytical skills, there is occurring a drop in the intellect. Therefore, proper practice of active listening by increasing the strength of meditation will be important in order to sustain the process of attentive hearing.
References
Bodie, G. D., Gearhart, C. C., Denham, J. P., & Vickery, A. J. (2013). The temporal stability and situational contingency of active-empathic listening. Western Journal of Communication, 77(2), 113-138.
Figueroa, C. (2014). Developing practical/analytical skills through mindful classroom simulations for “doing” leadership. Journal of Public Affairs Education, 20(1), 113-129.
Heald, S. and Nusbaum, H.C., 2014. Speech perception as an active cognitive process. Frontiers in systems neuroscience, 8, p.35.
Hornsby, B.W., 2013. The effects of hearing aid use on listening effort and mental fatigue associated with sustained speech processing demands. Ear and Hearing, 34(5), pp.523-534.
Jacobs, H. H. (2014). Active literacy across the curriculum: Strategies for reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Routledge.
Kawamichi, H., Yoshihara, K., Sasaki, A. T., Sugawara, S. K., Tanabe, H. C., Shinohara, R., … & Sadato, N. (2015). Perceiving active listening activates the reward system and improves the impression of relevant experiences. Social neuroscience, 10(1), 16-26.
Kolers, P. A. (2014). A pattern-analyzing basis of recognition. Levels of processing in human memory, 363-384.
Raniere, K.A., First Principles Inc, 2015. Device, system, and method for active listening. U.S. Patent Application 14/174,986.
TED Talk (2018). 5 Ways to Listen Better by Julian Treasure. Access date: 6th December 2018. Retrieved from: https://www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_5_ways_to_listen_better#t-12090
Tyagi, B., 2013. Listening: An important skill and its various aspects. The Criterion An International Journal in English, 12, pp.1-8.
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