164 Part 1 Basic Communication Processeswho use American Sign Language as a primary language also listen to each other
and encode and decode messages as do any individuals speaking the same vocal
language.
Even someone with perfect hearing can face listening challenges. For
instance, a person with attention deficit disorder (ADD) may have difficulty
focusing on information and tasks, which can make listening challenging.
People with auditory processing disorder, a learning disability that makes it dif-
ficult to process information they hear, must use strategies to focus on and
understand spoken information: they might adjust their environment, for
example, by always sitting in the front of the classroom or always studying in
the quietest section of the library. They might rely more heavily on written or
visual cues when learning new information, use paraphrasing to confirm that
they’ve received and processed messages correctly, and focus on only one listen-
ing task at a time.Multitasking
Listening well can be nearly impossible when your attention is divided among
many important tasks. Multitasking—attending to several things at once—is
often considered an unavoidable part of modern life. We routinely drive, walk,
cook, or tidy up while listening to music, talking on the phone, communicating
on social networking sites, or watching television.
We may believe we’re giving fair attention to each task, but research shows
that our ability to attend to more complicated chores suffers when we multitask.
That’s because our ability to focus is limited—we end up shifting our atten-
tion between various tasks, which decreases our efficiency and accuracy (Wallis,
2006). If you grew up surrounded by television, PlayStations, and iPods, you
may be able to multitask better than people who grew up without such
distractions. But regardless of age or experience, heavy multitaskers are
less able to switch tasks efficiently and tend to be distracted by irrel-
evant pieces of information (Ophir, Nass, & Wagner, 2009)
So what are realistic remedies for this listening barrier? One
remedy is discipline: vow to silence your cell phone, log out of
your social networking site, and refrain from texting for a specified
period. Another remedy is to be mindful and considerate of oth-
ers. You may think it’s no big deal to text a friend during a class-
mate’s presentation in your human communication course, but if
the roles were reversed, you might take offense or wonder if you were
boring your listeners (Mello, 2009; Stephens & Davis, 2009). This
point goes for interpersonal interactions, too—if you’re texting Rod-
ney or playing Words with Friends with Denise while having lunch
with Alex, you might be sending Alex an unintended message that
you don’t value his company.Boredom and Overexcitement
It can be hard to listen to a speaker whose presentation is lifeless or
whose voice lulls you to sleep or even to a perfectly competent speakerWe know that manners
are culturally bound (rude
behavior in one culture may
be acceptable behavior
in another). Taking into
account your culture and
co-cultures (including age,
gender, and so on), do you
find multitasking behaviors—
such as updating Twitter
while a friend is talking—to
be rude or acceptable?
Why? How might your
answer change if you were
older or younger or from a
different region in the world?AND YOU?
YOUR ABILITY to
accomplish tasks would
undoubtedly be stretched too
thin if you attempted to write
a paper, browse Web sites,
and carry on a phone conver-
sation simultaneously. Getty
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