174 Part 1 Basic Communication Processes
“I Am Peter, Hear Me Roar,” Family Guy’s Peter decides to get in touch with his
feminine side and calls his buddy Quagmire “just to talk.” He wants to listen to
what’s going on with his friend and have his friend listen to him in turn. Quag-
mire is so uncomfortable with this situation that he slams down the phone!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 cam-
pus 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 Mil-
waukee 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.