We're Listening: But What Do We Hear?

"We are listening to more than music. In addition to music, SiriusXM, a satellite radio company, provides sports talk, news, talk shows, and podcasts. As of 2024, SiriusXM boasted 150 million listeners. As of 2025, 4,509,765 podcasts have been registered around the world, with Apple alone hosting 2,800,138. In the United States, over 200 million people have listened to a podcast at least once, and 158 million consume podcasts on a monthly basis."

"Audio media have been surging while society has been becoming increasingly polarized and expressions of dissent have too often become violent. Paradoxically, the increased reliance on listening has not been associated with more effective listening-listening that promotes healthy relationships and community through dialogue. Are people listening more, but listening less well? By adversely affecting relationships, poor listening habits contribute to conflict, stress, loneliness, anxiety, and depression, and threaten empathy, compassion, and nurturance."

Audio consumption has surged across platforms including streaming, satellite radio, podcasts, and audiobooks, with hundreds of millions of monthly listeners and millions of registered podcasts. Listening frequency has increased even as societal polarization and violent dissent have risen. Listening quality has not kept pace with quantity. Effective listening requires attentional and receptive skills that convey concern for the speaker and foster comprehension and dialogue. Counterproductive listening reduces understanding, inhibits dialogue, damages relationships, and contributes to conflict, stress, loneliness, anxiety, and depression. High-quality listening supports dialogue, well-being, empathy, and stronger interpersonal and community relationships.

Read at Psychology Today