multijimbo

I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts recently. In part, this is just because I’ve gotten behind in listening to those to which I’ve subscribed. In part, this is because of the old ‘kid in the candy store’ phenomenon, wherein the sweets in every jar on the counter are in and of themselves, fascinating.

Some of my current list are fiction, some are non-fiction; some are very regular, others are to different degrees irregular; are though are still welcome, since if they weren’t, they wouldn’t remain on the list.

All of this listening, sometimes though not always while doing something else that doesn’t require my entire brain, has led me to speculate. And as with many of my speculations, I’m sure, willing to bet money sure, that there are PhD theses on this topic out in the world, answering any question I might craft in these idle speculations.

Listening is easy and reading is hard. This is an anecdotal claim at best, but looking around, I think that we spend a lot of time listening while we’re doing something else. We might have a conversation while talking to someone; we might be taking part in an on-line meeting, taking care of old emails and updating Amazon orders while keeping one ear in the meeting.

This isn’t to say that we’re listening well. We are in such situations just keeping that ear out for the mention of things that we’re most concerned about.

Yes, listening well is hard. Being the attentive partner to someone else’s speculations takes work, as rewarding as it is. But we can pay some attention via listening while doing other things.

For me, reading is different. Reading requires focus which is disturbed by background music, television, but strangely not the white noise chatter of a coffee shop.

Beyond this, I wonder whether we process the information we acquire from reading and from listening differently. I’m sure that we must. I have no formal evidence for this, no proof, but I do have my own experience, for what that’s worth. I can listen to a podcast while walking down the street, while I can’t read a book while walking down the street.

Perhaps this is just one part of a much larger phenomenon, with this at one end and the awkward conversations we sometimes have about the difference between the books we’ve read and the movies made from them. Something to ponder.

~ by Jim Anderson on 25 February 2024.

Posted in bizarre and random things