Chapter 6: Listening

The Technology Listening Context

Anish Patel could have walked across campus to attend his microeconomics course in person. But why bother, when the lecture is streaming live over the campus network? Instead of listening with his classmates in a crowded lecture hall, he watches on his laptop in the comfort of his own apartment (Gabriel, 2010).

Russell Hampton is both a father and the president of a book and magazine publishing unit of Walt Disney Company. When he was driving his daughter and her teenage friends to a play, he listened to their conversation about an actor in a Disney movie and tried to join in the conversation. Suddenly, the girls became very quiet. Russell could see his daughter texting in the rearview mirror and chided her for being rude and ignoring her friends. He later discovered that all three teens were texting each other—so that they could listen to one another without Russell listening to them (Holson, 2008).

As these two examples illustrate, technology can be both helpful and hurtful to the listening process. Anish Patel might listen more effectively in a classroom with the energy of live interaction where questions can be asked and notes compared. But he might also be able to process the lecture more effectively by rewinding and listening again to sections of the lecture without distraction. Russell Hampton might be hurt that his daughter and her friends shut him out of their conversation, but their texts give them a powerful way of listening to one another.

Listening to messages in various technological contexts requires a lot more effort than other forms of communication. For example, when you talk on the phone, you rely on verbal messages as well as vocal nonverbal messages (tone of voice, speaking rate, silences, and so on) because you lack other nonverbal cues such as body movement and eye behavior. But when you read your mom’s e-mail or you text your significant other, you often lack both components.

For this reason, you must be sure to listen actively to the cues you do have at your disposal. When your friend Sheila capitalizes a word in a text, she’s giving emphasis to a particular point; you can show her that you’ve listened by making sure to address that particular point. In general, you show your communication partners that you’ve listened to their Facebook posts when you respond to the questions or concerns that they raised. You’re not listening competently if you respond to your father’s questions about when you’re coming home next with an e-mail that details what you had for lunch. Similarly, you listen well when you enter an online chat and read the sequence of comments before responding (rather than blurting out a response to the first post you see).

And, of course, using technology competently also means taking into account the receiver of your message. Consider how your friend Eddie in Milwaukee would want to hear the news that you’ve broken up with his cousin whom you’ve been dating for two years: Through a text message? On Twitter? Over the phone? You’ll want to choose the channel that is the most effective and appropriate for the occasion.

BACK TO

The Doctor’s Office

At the beginning of this chapter, we talked about the importance of good communication between doctors and patients, as well as the costs of communication breakdowns in the health care field. Let’s take a moment to revisit the nature of listening as it relates to patient–doctor interactions.

All communication is transactional, and both parties—in this case, the doctor and the patient—are responsible for it. But the expense of lawsuits and malpractice insurance ultimately puts the pressure on the health care professionals to improve communication in order to avoid costly mistakes. That’s why so many hospitals and insurance companies are providing training for doctors. Medical schools are taking the process a step further by weeding out candidates who are poor communicators.
Doctors also bear greater responsibility for communication outcomes because they, at the end of the day, are the professionals and are expected to be adept at every aspect of their jobs. Linda Berstein, who directs a program for improving health care professionals’ communication skills, notes, “To be a good doctor, you have to have the ability to listen to the patients and follow their leads” (quoted in Landro, 2013, para. 26). Doctors in the program are trained to ask better questions, to probe for additional information, and to ensure that patients understand their directions.
Age may affect memory, but the situational context plays a role here as well. In a doctor’s office, faced with concerns about our health and intimidated by unfamiliar medical terminology, we are more likely to experience listening apprehension, which will affect our ability to process information.
Note the patient’s explanation that people might rush out of a doctor’s appointment because “they know the doctor is busy.” In this case, the relational context is negatively impacting communication. A doctor who implies that she is busy, or perhaps that she has more important patients to attend to, might leave a patient thinking that her case, or her illness, is less important or perhaps not as serious.