Is Selective Listening Really that Bad?(MARK THIS ONE)

There's Nothing Faulty about Selective Listening

Just because we are not listening, doesn't necessarily mean we are not paying attention.

In lecture seven we talked about listening and the faulty listening behaviors, like selective listening. But just because we are doing selective listening necessarily doesn't make it a "faulty listening behaviour."

I am interlinking this statement with the link called "Resisting Persuasion and Selective Response". This link talks about all the way in which someone can protect themselves from being persuaded by a speaker and using selective response or selective listening is a technique, and yet it also considered a "Faulty" listening behavior.

Selective Listening is when you listen to parts of a conversation that you want to hear, or that interest you (Sevigny. Cmst 1ao3. Oct.14.2009.)

Now under Dr. Sevigny notes it mentions these as faulty listening behaviors, but in the article it mentions these as ways to resist persuasion. Now isn't resisting persuasion usually a good thing?

In everyday conversations between couples arguments are bound to happen and each individual will feel very strong about their opinion or what they are fighting for. They are trying to avoid giving in to what the other person is saying, and how the other person may be trying to convince their spouse to see their side of the argument more, and that maybe, just maybe their opinion was wrong. By using selective listening people can ignore what they feel is giberish and that there spouse is just trying to sweet talk them or lay guilt on them, because in fact they may have no actual evidence, they are just trying to persuade them to thinking that their own opinion and belief is wrong. This is an example where selective listening could save the day and make your argument seem more legitimate because your didn't fall into the trap of them trying to persuade you.

Not only do everyday couples use selective listening when they get into arguments with one another, I personally believe that politicians do a very good job of using selective listening against their opponents. They use it in a way where they absorb the information they want to here but the information that means nothing to them or that they believe has no relevance, they flush away. However, one has to be aware of the amount and degree of selective listening they are doing because personally I believe it could turn into ambushing. Ambushing is where one listens carefully to pick out information to use it and attack and what you are saying ( Adler, Rodman, and Sevigny 135).

You, as a listener have to be able to listen to ones arguments and use the method of selective listening to a point where it is helping you block out the information they are trying to use to persuade you and gather their legitimate information. But, you also must keep in mind the amount of information you are taking in and what you are going to say in response to their statement.

Remember, no one likes an ambushing!

Work Cited:

Adler. B, Ronald, George Rodman, and Alexandre Sevigny. Understanding Human Communications. Ontario. Oxford University Press: 2008.

Sevigny, Alexandre. Cmst 1A03. Lecture notes. Oct. 14 2009.

Image Retrieved From:

Scott, Jerry and Jim Borgman. Rude, Crude, and Tattooed. Cincinnati. Andrews and McMeel: 2007. Retrieved from: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/Listening.gif. on Oct.15 2009.