Jez's Blog

Noise is so common today that most of us have already gotten used to it. However, from CNN, Julian Treasure, the author of Sound Business, did a presentation on TED -- a nonprofit organization devoted to "ideas worth spreading" which it makes available through talks posted on its website -- to inform people about the 10 things we don't know about sound.

I think Julian's presentation is quite interesting. According to Julian, we are all chords, which are collections of vibration, and so that a definition of health may be that chord is in complete harmony. He said that listening does not equal to hearing. Hearing is passive. However, listening requires understanding. Julian suggests that "listening positions are a useful set of perspectives that can help people to be more conscious and effective in communication." The example that he gave to explain this point is that men and women have different listening positions that effect the contexts of their conversations. Men adopt a reductive listening position, listening for something, often a point or solution. On the other hand, women adopt an expansive listening position, enjoying the conversation, going with the flow. I think this observation is quite true no matter if it is really because that listening positions effect the context of a conversation. In fact, I think this statement might actually be another way around. Perhaps it is the context of the conversation that causes different listening positions. Let's take Julian's example, but apply my theory on it instead. The reason why women's listening positions are different from men, in my opinion, is because that the things that women usually talk about are different than what men do. Women's conversations are genuinely quite personal, whereas men might talk more about their business. Therefore, their listening positions shows that they are more open to each other.

Anyways, another thing that caught my attention in Julian's presentation is that "noise harms, and even kills." The statistics he brought up was shocking. The presentation mentions that "the WHO is also the source for the startling statistic about noise killing 200,000 people a year. Its findings (LARES report) estimate that 3 percent of deaths from ischemic heart disease result from long-term exposure to noise. With 7 million deaths a year globally, that means 210,000 people are dying of noise every year." Shocking, isn't it? The noises that we often negligent could actually cause us hearing diseases or even death! I remember that my dad used to tell me not to wear earphones all the time because it is going to sverely hurt my hearing. I guess he is not just overacting.

Reference:
- http://www.nj.gov/dep/enforcement/noise-intro.html [Image: NJDEP: What's All The Noise About? Copyright © State of New Jersey, 1996-2010]
-http://articles.cnn.com/2010-10-10/opinion/treasure.sound_1_noise-vibrations-positions?_s=PM:OPINION [CNN: 10 things you didn't know about sound. CNN © 2010 Cable News Network]