Is There a Quota for Multi-Tasking?

I sat in class yesterday and felt completely stressed and overwhelmed, thinking of everything that is currently going on in my life.

While thinking and stressing over what I have to do, I was actually supposed to listen to speeches that were being performed by my classmates. I wanted to be attentive and supportive for them, so, even though it was challenging, I pressed pause on everything that wasn't related to the current moment. As my "to do" list was still screaming in the back of my mind for my attention, I took a deep breath and urged myself to concentrate.

Just as I tuned back into my classmates' speeches, a girl in my class walked up to the podium and began her speech: "the purpose of my speech is to inform the class about ways to deal with stress..."

LIFE-101

Okay, so here's the deal. We have all these General Education classes (also known as "Gen-Eds") that we must take in order to fulfill all of the requirements to earn a Bachelor's degree. Understandable. And yes, I know that many of you do not see the purpose of taking these classes. I mean, really, why should an Art History major take BIOL-101 (Biological Sciences)? Or, how come a student pursuing a degree in Economics needs to sit through not one, but TWO College Writing classes (ENWR-105, ENWR-106)?!?

Personally, and don't attack me please, I see these Gen-Ed requirements as a way to help us become well-rounded individuals.

Think about it for a moment. How can you be a writer if you know nothing other than spelling, grammar, and writing techniques? What will you write about?

How can you become a successful businessman (or woman) without mastering the art of public speaking? What will happen when you need to make presentations for large corporations? (and no, not every presentation involves a PowerPoint. You do realize that People will judge your speaking patterns, the words that you choose, and your confidence level while you make a speech, right?).

Besides, we are mostly provided with general categories that each offer a multiple number of courses to choose from in order to complete a certain requirement. There must be some course under the broad category of "Social Science" that interests each one of us, don't you agree? And you know that you actually did end up enjoying that yoga class. :)

I will admit, though, that some of our required Gen-Ed classes are taught in ridiculous ways that result in no learning whatsoever and, therefore, really do become unnecessary.

So I propose a more beneficial way of learning. Taking classes that will help us in everyday life as responsible, intelligent adults. Montclair State University, Rub your mind against this: instead of requiring the (often, dull, exasperating) course "New Student Seminar" for all incoming Freshmen (which, by the way, sometimes tempts them to put on their running shoes and run right down MSU's hill and off to a different university), you might do a better service by offering a course that will teach time management skills, critical thinking (and thinking outside the box, if we are finally talking about the important, broad topic of "thinking"), networking methods, and how to effectively work in group settings. Or how about the basics of choosing and establishing a career from the ground up? Isn't that what we all intend to do? And, just for the record, the knowledge and skills that I am discussing here are not learned from a text book nor from power point presentations but from discussions and personal knowledge and experience.

Not only would these skills help us all in life, but they would also provide us with basic knowledge that can act as a solid ground in almost all college courses.

There is so much information that can be taught in order to prepare us for the "real world." Yes, we need to know basic math and writing skills, but aren't basic life skills just as important?

*Hands pressed to my ears* I Can't Heard You

I went to a holiday dinner this past Friday night for Rosh Hashanah- the Jewish New Year. Family friends hosted the dinner at their apartment in New York City and we were 18 people sitting around the table, eating and chatting.

Then, my host started voicing his opinions about politics...and other topics that we do not particularly agree on.

I listened for a while, and we held a short debate.

I finally realized that we weren't reaching any sort of agreement or even a mutual understanding.

But my host continued talking. Trying to convince other guests about his dominant beliefs. (While his wife was trying to convince him that he wasn't making sense...)

I automatically shut myself off. Sleep mode. I was looking out the window and then at the people around me, thinking about my plans for the next day--doing anything to avoid listening to the conversation and hearing it as merely a source of background noise. This time, however, I was completely aware of what I was doing.

I respect other people and their views and do enjoy intelligent discussions. But sometimes, when conversations come to a complete clash, I think it is best to withdraw yourself. Especially when talking about politics. At the Dinner table. With your host. Proceed with caution.

Learning about listening really does make you more aware to daily interactions, observing the elements of communication, and evaluating your own listening habits. At one point, I found myself smiling to myself, realizing that we really do only desirably listen to what we want to hear, what is compatible with our views, our beliefs, and our morals. We often tend to filter out the rest.

Listening Through Cyberspace

Is this madness helping us listen more or is it distracting us from listening?

Are we becoming more socially available or are we creating a wall in front of our actual physical and emotional being?

Do social networks help expose our personalities or do they end up being a virtual mask, used as an alternative to a handshake or a face to face conversation?

How do we keep our own uniqueness if each one of us is just a face on Facebook?

[Now, what should I log onto first: Blackboard, Webmail, Facebook, Blogger, Twitter, or Gmail? Hmm..please text your opinion]

Introduction

Nice to meet you :) My name is Daisy and I am a Junior at Montclair State University, majoring in Organizational Communications. This blog is purely dedicated to my college Listening course (Fall '09) and I will be updating it on a regular basis.

I think the idea of creating a blog for class (especially a Communication Studies class) is great. Today's leading businesses have established a dominant virtual world through newsletters, networking sites, and professional blogs and being a part of this world is- in my opinion- essential in order to keep up with the fast paced, competitive nature of today's job force. So I think this is a good start.

Other than that, I also think that this is the perfect channel to voice thoughts and opinions. I am excited to discuss topics relevant to this course as well as a variety of issues that interest me.

I look forward to learning about listening through my Listening class since I think that improving as a listener- and not only as a speaker- is essential in order to become a more effective communicator in both my personal life and career path.