Blog Post #5

The difference between hearing and listening is that people tend to hear things if it isn’t something that they’re interested in, it won’t seem of importance to want to hear more information about it. So they may brush it off or even think about something else while they hear someone talking. When it comes to listening, I would say it’s something people are interested in getting more information about; thus, when people listen to someone talk, they give it their full attention avoiding any distractions because the information may be beneficial to aspects of their lives. People make choices based on what they listen to; rather than what they hear. Most people tend to listen to a social class structure, especially if that person has power. Seeing that most people would listen to someone with that power, it would display that they’re receiving accurate information due to his or her status in society. For instance, if they have a big following and people look up to them; and deliver information, people will run with that information and believe every word; even if it’s misinformation, only because it’s a celebrity.

As Damon Krukowski mentioned, “digital devices extend interior space into the street, through audio we’re privatizing our public space.” It’s noisy in New York City (NYC), so most people use phones or listen to their headphones while they walk down the street to block out the noise around them. On public transportation, people will use their headphones, not only to avoid the noise pollution around them but also to avoid hearing peoples’ conversations in which they aren’t interested because they are strangers. When people are in public spaces, most times it’s uncomfortable, from noise to crowds of people, so they find comfort in listening to their headphones and not having to deal with the discomfort of being in public spaces. Gentrification also played a big part in the noise in NYC because of all the construction of the new buildings that were being built around the city.