Whatdoyou think is the difference between passive listiningand active listening?

Active listeners certainly try harder than passive listeners as they pay attention to what other people say. Active listening is an active effort to understand what is being said. This is not to say that passive listening is bad. There is a time and a place for both kinds of listening. I have heard it said that the human brain intentionally ignores details, because otherwise it would go into information overload at all of the details that are available. Take where you are sitting write now for example. How many different shades of color can you see? How many sounds can you hear? I am sitting in a room, looking at a computer monitor with a black casing; behind it is a wall with (fake) wood paneling on the bottom half and the top of the wall has been painted white. I have sheets of paper posted on the wall with all sorts of interesting information that I want to keep handy for future reference. Outside, I hear the sounds of a car passing by with a strange buzzing sound... and now someone is driving by with their speakers turned up too loud -- BOOM, BOOM, BOOM! I am still reveling in the afterglow of having a good lunch (soup and cheese sandwich) and am a little tired, so that I could possibly take a nap. All of these details are coming at me from all of these different directions, so that if I tried to pay constant, active attention to them all - they would drive me crazy! (^_^) Thankfully, the human brain has something inside that screens information that it cosiders valuable and pertinent and allows that to come directly to your attention, while other information is simply (and naturally) ignored. I don't need to know about the brown walls with black lines... it does not do anything for the task that I am attempting to accomplish at the moment - sending a reply on the computer. So active listening is to take an active, asserted interest in paying attention to what someone else is saying. An active listener absorbs the details and tries to arrive at an understanding. A passive listener is vaguely aware that someone is talking, and might be more interested in a shallow conversation about the weather.

Passive is listening on the right ear and letting it out on the left ear like buzzing sounds. I can sleep with buzzing sound. I don't care about these kinds of sounds. Active listening is interactive. You listen and then what you listen is absorbed into your soul...and then you begin to ask questions relating to what you've just heard or you react.