The World Listening Project (WLP) was founded in 2008. The charitable organization is devoted to fostering understanding of the world and its natural environment through listening and field recording.
In 2010, the WLP created World Listening Day. They chose July 18th to commemorate R. Murray Schafer’s birthday. Schafer is a renowned Canadian composer, author, and environmentalist. He is best known for his studies on acoustic ecology (a discipline studying the relationship, mediated through sound, between human beings)
The theme for World Listening Day 2022 “Listening Across Boundaries” invites us to explore the role of listening across branches of knowledge including scientific, medical, and musical purposes
“Listening Across Boundaries” implies making people around the listen more as in the era of social media we can see that people only want to talk about their issues but are not willing to listen to others and that’s a problem that further deepens division and hatred across the world.
But if you listen to natural landscapes they do not recognize the boundaries created by men but they all sound the same everywhere. In a similar way if you listen to more music or other knowledgeable things around the world then you might notice the similarities that eventually all humans are basically the same.
The significance of this day is that we are suggested to talk less and be more towards listening either you can listen to the sounds of nature alone and just can wander off to see the world around you. Otherwise, you can also spend some time with your family and friends by listening and talking.
It is also scientifically proven that a person with better listening ability will be more successful in handling tough situations and certain jobs which require higher concentration. So yeah listening is a skill, in fact, about 2% of people are officially trained to be a better listener in various jobs
This day can be observed by either going on a solo walk, listening to a concert or using your phone to record a bunch of sounds from your environment, from a particular bird call to the sound of a truck driving down the street. Invite your family and friends over and see if they can identify each sound as you play them plus many more ways.
#5Facts about world listening day
- Women are better listeners
Research shows that women engage both lobes of their brains for listening, whereas men use only half of their brains.
- Listening to music helps
Listening to music creates a stress-free environment, for example, listening to music before surgery reduces cortisol levels, and it helps some students relax and study better before an exam.
- Listening can help lose weight!
Researchers have found that listening to relaxing music while eating at a restaurant resulted in diners consuming 175 fewer calories.
- Listening is a skill
Less than 2% of people have had formal education on how to effectively listen.
- Prerequisites to listening
To become an effective listener, it is important to not assume, refrain from making judgments, and hold our thoughts to really listen to what the other person is trying to convey.
BY TOBIAS CHACHA