Listen...

If I were to whisper, would you be more inclined to listen to me?

We are a society of incredibly impatient, hurried individuals and I believe that in our rush, the art of listening has become lost. When was the last time you really stopped multitasking and completely listened to what someone had to tell you? Have we simply chosen to tune out the talk, talk, talk so that we can "get on with it" and proceed to our next task? And if that is the case, how sad is that?

I'm also wondering if listening in some way translates to how we read our email. Are we listening to what others are trying to express to us through written language? I don't think so. I believe we have become a generation of skim readers and text messaging jargonists and it really takes something special to grab our attention and make us listen.

In the movie "The Devil Wears Prada" the icy demeanor of Meryl Streep's character, Miranda Priestly was a lesson in communication. Self assured and quiet spoken Miranda was a force. She said what she needed to say; short, succinct, final. People listened and reacted.

As designers and visual artists, our jobs revolve around communication. Are we listening anymore?

Comments

[Kordump]

i agree. i actually only read all the way through the entire post because i'm drunk and havent slept for way too much time for my own good and, therefore, my brain is slowed down. otherwise i would have skimmed throught it begging for a ringer phrase.

cheers for this post right now

[elysa]

The answer to your question is no people are not listening any more especially not to emails. Emails have the power to make things much more efficient in an project but usually they slow things down because it takes 5 emails back and forth to get the point across.