Did you know the sound of the ocean in a seashell is actually the sound of our own blood surging through our ears? This is a perfect example of how we can hear noise, but understanding the noise is an entirely different story.
In today’s bustling world, our attention is constantly being drawn in by a variety of sounds. Our brains naturally have to sort out what they think is important and block out the rest or else we would be overwhelmed with input. We still hear the bustle, but we are not listening to it. We think of this as selective hearing or tuning out.
This is the difference between hearing and listening.
Hearing is something we do all the time, even in our sleep. We cannot make ourselves stop hearing, but we can block sound out through earphones, ear plugs or the tried and true method of putting our fingers in our ears and shouting “Lalalalalala!” It requires no effort to hear, no conscious choice. Unfortunately, this process can become a lot harder for people who may be hard of hearing, as they need to put more effort into being able to hear the sounds around them. That’s why they may want to have a look at these reviews of the best hearing amplifiers so they don’t have to have that conscious choice of being able to hear what they want to hear. It just automatically happens.
Listening is an entirely different story.
It requires attention, cognitive processing and the intention to learn. Since there is so much information out there, the best way to learn what you need to know is to ask questions.
That is our intention in creating a survey for River Citizens. We need to get to know you, what you have questions about and listen to your ideas for the campaign. We know you are a bunch of smart people, you decided to become a River Citizen after all! Bring your brain power to the campaign, answer a few quick questions and help out the campaign and your fellow River Citizens.
Check out this month’s newsletter, All Ears, listen to your gut and take the survey.
Cicadas do; they actually have their ‘ears’ in their stomachs! Cricket ears are on their knees, the blue morph butterfly “listens” by feeling vibrations on its wings and we humans have two ears and one mouth, possibly a hint that we should listen twice as much as we talk.
Blue Morpho Butterfly
by Vera Kratochvil” src=”https://1mississippi.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/blue-morph-butterfly-see-permission-notes.jpg” width=”615″ height=”410″ /> blue morph butterfly