How long can you focus on listening to someone?

What i hate most are opinionated people who seems to talk and talk and doesn't seem to care whatever your impressions maybe regarding the topic he/she is discussing.And when u try to say something, u feel like she or he has never heard you? Oh my goodness give me tons of patience!!! So what i do when i'm annoyed is i don't say anything anymore.I just nod if i have to be polite enough, but i'm thinking of something else in my mind to keep myself from getting bored and unbecoming. If this person is not a close friend, i will give him/her 15mins of my time at the most. If she or he is someone close to my heart, i will give her one hour but u can bet i am thinking of something else while nodding to her once in a while.

10 minutes or twice is enough for me to attentively listen... I usually get bored...

Yes I do agree with you. It all depends on the kind of conversation you have and sometimes it depends on the person you are talking to as well. There are just those types of people that whatever they say, no matter how interesting the topic is, you'll still get bored because you hate or simply don't like the person. I know I experienced that before. I just found the person really annoying in a lot of ways, like voice, gestures, face, etc. Just ruins everything.

I have been known to drift off mid conversation. I know it is really rude, but if the conversation does not interest me I tend to just switch off. It also depends on the person too, if I admire them or look upto them of course I am going to listen.

For me, it greatly depends if the person I am listening from makes sense because if he does not, I always interrupt not unless of course if the intensity of the conversation is serious. When things go that way, I always strategize to take things easy. It must be an interpolation between us.

Yes,It depends up on how interesting the topic is.Some time topic are interesting but the speaker make it so boring.How interesting is topic if a person talks in a boring way fortunately listener feel boring and sleepy too.Some it happens If the is so boring but the person makes it so interesting that no one can feel boring or tired staying so long.

You're right! If the topics are boring then you also wouldnt last long listening to the person talking. I find it hard to listen to people especially they are the only ones talking and all you have to do while being with them it just say "uh huh", "hmmm", "yeah", "oh", and all those responses.

It most certainly depends on the person doing the talking. If its interesting to me I can stay focused for as long as the person talks. If the topic being discussed is not to my taste I just blank out with a glazed look.

Well i am habituated of seminars, lectures and work shops, i can keep listening for hours if the talk is good, but if i find it boring, i just leave the hall, similarly if some body is talking to me, and that is not appealing then i keep quiet, Thanks for this post, cheers Prof

I really agree with you,too.Especially,when we talk to someone who have the same opinions with us or who is smarter than us that can open our mind,we tend to listen to him or she carefully.But when he who talk something again and again ,we may easily feel bored.

It would really depend on the person I'm listening to or the topic that's been discussed. Otherwise, my sense of hearing will wander off to wherever it catches it's attention or just to avoid the speaker. Distraction is a great factor to how long I would listen really.

It depends on the person that is talking to me and on the subject that he is talking for. If this is something interesting for me there is no problem to listen to him hours, but if it`s not interesting i can`t listen to someone more than 20-30 minutes.