What was that again?

I found the discussions on listening skills in chapter three to be important. I have always placed a lot of weight in the audience’s role when it comes to speaking because much of the responsibility of the message tends to lie within a person’s ability to interpret the message correctly. It’s not to take away from the necessity placed upon the speaker to present it clearly, but only an acknowledgement that the speaker can only do so much in their efforts to convey a meaning. In reading the reality of how many of us suffer from poor listening skills and how our culture has a tendency to promote this underdevelopment I found this point to be very alarming. With so much resting on the ability of the receiver, in terms of communication, how much information is lost in the inability for them to interpret a message if listening skills are not given as much, if not more, focus than those of speaking? And the more I thought about this concept it occurred to me that I spend more time attempting to drowned out surrounding noise and conversation in my everyday activities in order to concentrate on the task at hand than I do attempting to actually listen to the things I need to hear.