Sunday, February 1, 2009

Top judge says young can't listen

According to the BBC, a top English judge recently claimed that young people may not be reliable jurors as they don't have the same level of listening skills as older generations.

Here's a link to a quick test based on that BBC story (although, I agree with one of the comments at the end that the test's a bit flawed): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7715868.stm

I find it a bit ironic that a top judge accuses young people of poor listening skills. Top judges are just the kind of folk who end up in the House of Lords - a place full of, amongst others, retired judges popping off to sleep during other people's speeches.

3 comments:

Hannah said...

Couldn't agree more, it's all very well for him to criticise, but he hasn't considered the fact that he probably sometimes switches off half way through a trial. I don't mean falling a sleep. But everyone has a limit on the time they can listen to a person speak.
In fact, I think quite oftent young people tend to soak more up than adults through listening. Children certainly don't seem to edit anything.

Zeitgeist said...

You're certainly right about being a judge in the house of lords but I'm afraid I absolutely do aggree with him on the topic of young people not listening properly. Nowadays we get overflooded by visual media such as huge billboards and else and I guess it is even less important to depend on audio material. The radio has always been a medium that is mainly used by older generations (except for music channels) and I believe this is not only due to the content of such radiop channels. Still, one cannot entirely blame young people for this lack of listening skills as it should be regarded a crucial part of household education, in other words the parents. But I don't dare say this problem can simply be solved by removing the TV. I personally find the Television a great medium if used wisely. Okay...I'm drifting away from the actual topic! I have currently no intention writing an essay about this issue ;)

hkscot said...

I'm a good listener if the subject interests me. I'm a poor listener if the subject is not.

I'm sure this applies to most people, young and old.