Ok story time.
Today I was hungry so I decided I'd hop in the car and go get some delicious food from my local Sonic. Yay Sonic. Super. So I pull into my space push the button and wait to give my order. I say clearly into the speaker "May I please get a number one with cheese no onions no pickles with fries and a strawberry watermelon slushie?" So I'm waiting for my meal hoping it’s going to be as delicious as I've been anticipating and like five minutes later (quick for sonic in my experience) my food is being delivered. yay! So I get my food and drive away. I get all the way back to my house and open my burger only to find that my cheeseburger is only a hamburger. Almost like mistaking sprite for water, biting into a hamburger expecting the delicious cheesy flavor to massage your taste buds only to discover that that cheesy deliciousness is nowhere to be found, is a shocking disappointment. For those of you who know me, you understand the love affair that cheese and I have. Cheese and I- we go way back. Cheese grits, cheeseburgers, hash browns with cheese, grilled cheese, cheese sticks, blocks of cheese- whatever kind of cheese I'm usually down. This cheeseburger with no cheese was a huge disappointment to me. I can't say that I threw in down in disgust or marched back to sonic demanding that they provide me with a delicious slice of cheese for my burger (I actually just ended up eating it) but this whole situation made me think. Now I understand that people who work in the fast food industry have to deal with picky customers like me every day and that mistakes are bound to happen but how difficult is it to actually listen to what someone says?
In our society today how often do you give anyone enough attention to actually hear what they have to say and understand what they are saying? Texting and email and even phone conversations all contribute to our shortened attention spans. Listen to yourself have a phone conversation with a friend or a relative? How often do you interrupt or are interrupted? How often do you just have to say something even if the other person is finishing up some story they just had to tell you? You know that feeling when you think of something you want to say and you want to be polite and let that person finish what they're saying before you just jump in there with your own story? you’re sitting there thinking about what it is your going to say instead of listening to the end of that story they are trying to tell you right? Think about it.
Another time that we are famous for not listening to people is when we ask for opinions. Imagine this situation: you go to a store and find a fabulous dress (sorry fellas I’m a girl) you try it on and you look hot! You’re sitting there twirling in the mirror admiring how good your butt looks and then comes the time you put it through the friend test. Say you’ve got two friends. You ask them what they think, one says "eh...it looks ok" and the other says "oh well that looks alright" what you hear "It looks great buy it!!" instead of actually listening to what your friends said, you just hear what you wanted to hear. While sometimes your friends are just haters and can’t recognize your awesome fashion sense but most of the time they’re just looking out for you. If you would listen more carefully, you could potentially avoid buyer’s remorse or worse- not looking as cute as you thought you did.
So here is the point of my little rant. Listen to what people are saying. Don’t just project what you think they should say or what you want to hear on what you think they are saying. Pay attention to people. I mean real attention. Put down your phone. Stop texting or checking your email or playing some game. Look at the person (eye contact is preferable) and actually listen to what they have to say. Communication is one of the most basic parts of our society and even though we now have all this technology that's intended to improve communication, our attention spans have deteriorated thus breaking down our ability to communicate effectively.
Get with the program people. Listen and pay attention to what’s going on around you. You might actually hear some good stuff.
No comments:
Post a Comment