Celebrating International Day of Listening - Thursday, September 20, 2018

Today, to celebrate the International Day of Listening, students in my Introduction to Computers class wrote about how technology is impacting listening in society. Following are what they had to say. Their comments have not been edited.

These 16 community college students (14 males; 2 females) are giving us insight into how listening might not always be the best because of the distractions of technology. Do you agree? Which statement resonates most with those in your life and you?

1. Technology impacts the way we listen today by having us communicate verbally less often than what we would usually do. Texting has taken over as one of the most common ways to communicate with others leaving technology being more reliable and dependent on communication. It can be more of a distraction having people constantly looking over at their phones and computer screens. 
2. Tech is good tech is great yay tech. Texting is bad because the youth likes it they never listen to each other anymore L. Listening is good because that means you care. Tech is distracting because it is not humanly possible to listen and tech at the same time.
3. Technology has impacted society in the listening aspect more now than ever. Technology is huge distraction during real conversations. 
4. I believe that increased texting has decreased our tolerance for listening. Why listen when we can read?
5. Technology can be a distraction to peoples listening and can cause people to listen less or not at all. Some people would rather be on their phone than be listening to someone.
6. I believe that the over abundant use of cell phones has affected the way we, as people, communicate, and listen. People need to be more respectful and learn that speaking face-to-face and listening to one another is better than texting one another. Face-to-face interaction helps each other understand our body language and become better listeners.
7. Nowadays, technology has become something that is convenient for us and makes everything easy for us. Technology helps us interact with others from far but makes us lose focus on the stuff around us. When we use phones and laptops, we will pay attention to the thing on the screen instead of the things and the people that are around us. Overall technology impacts us in a way that would damage us instead of help us.
8. Technology has a impacted me personally by it distracting me, I would use technology to watch videos and to entertain me, I would rely on my phone to help me cure the boredom I have and would sometimes give me problems at night when I am trying to sleep. And it impacts me professionally with it giving me laziness to work on homework, I would at times prefer to watch a video or play a game instead of doing work. 
9. Technology has decreased listening between our peers, due to the massive rise in productivity it creates. However, people, who are enamored with this rise in productivity, are constantly seeking to increase their productivity, which can often come at the expense of communicating with their peers through a face-to-face conversation.
10. Thursday, September 20, 2018 is the International Day of Listening. With the increase of technology in our lives, people have started to decrease their tolerance for listening. We are much more interested/distracted by technology than actually paying attention.
11. Technology is impacting listening by increasing texting and getting rid of face-to-face conversations. This meaning that people are not very good at conversations and would rather talk over the phone so they might not always be listening to them. You can just read instead of listening. 
12. Technology has made it easier to talk and listen to people on the phone instead of face to face. Technology has affected listening because it can be distracting to text and listen at the same time. Technology makes it easier to listen at times because you can use headphones.
13. It is making better hearing aids and helping people who can’t hear anything to actually hear their baby’s, wife or peoples voices.
14. Technology is impacting how we listen by having us have audio recording of various things such as teacher lectures and instructions, just to name a few.
15. I believe that increased technology has impacted our listening because nobody looks at each other anybody anymore. My family has a hard time doing anything anymore without their electronics, which is very maddening.
16. Sometimes it provides as a distraction during a face to face conversation, such as when people text their friends and read the responses, or if they are playing an app game. . . . Even though I get distracted by my gadgets sometimes, I do manage to look away and listen to the people around me.

#internationaldayoflistening #dayoflistening