What is casual listening?

Answer 1

Causal Listening

Causal listening, the most common, consists of listening to a sound in order

to gather information about its cause (or source). When the cause is visible,

sound can provide supplementary information about it; for example, the

sound produced by an enclosed container when you tap it indicates how full it

is. When we cannot see the sound's cause, sound can constitute our principal

source of information about it. An unseen cause might be identified by some

knowledge or logical prognostication; causal listening (which rarely departs

from zero) can elaborate on this knowledge.

We must take care not to overestimate the accuracy and potential of causal

listening, its capacity to furnish sure, precise data solely on the basis of

analyzing sound. In reality, causal listening is not only the most common but

also the most easily influenced and deceptive mode of listening.

Identifying Causes: From the Unique to the General

Causal listening can take place on various levels. In some cases we can

recognize the precise cause: a specific person's voice, the sound produced by

particular unique object. But we rarely recognize a unique source exclusively

on the basis of sound we hear out of context. The human individual is

probably the only cause that can produce a sound, the speaking voice, which

characterizes that individual alone. Different dogs of the same species have

the same bark. Or at least (and for most people it adds up to the same thing)

we are not capable of distinguishing the barking of one bulldog from that of

another bulldog or even a dog of a related breed. Even though dogs seem to

be able to identify their master's voice from among hundreds of voices, it is

quite doubtful that the master, with eyes closed and lacking further

information, could similarly discern the voice of her or his own dog. What

obscures this weakness in our causal listening is that when we're at home

and hear barking in the back room, we can easily deduce that Fido or Rover

is the responsible party.

At the same time, a source we might be closely acquainted with can go

unidentified and unnamed indefinitely. We can listen to a radio announcer

every day without having any idea of her name or physical attributes. Which

by no means prevents us from opening a file on this announcer in our

memory, where vocal and personal details are noted, and where her name

and other traits (hair color, facial features -to which her voice gives us no

clue) remain blank for the time being. For there is a considerable difference

between taking note of the individual's vocal timbre and identifying her,

having a visual image of her and committing it to memory and assigning her

a name.

In another kind of causal listening we do not recognize an individual, or a

unique and particular item, but rather a category of human, mechanical, or

animal cause: an adult man's voice, a motorbike engine, the song of a

meadowlark. Moreover, in still more ambiguous cases far more numerous

than one might think, what we recognize is only the general nature of the

sound's cause. We may say, "That must be something mechanical" (identified

by a certain rhythm, a regularity aptly called "mechanical"); or, "That must

be some animal" or "a human sound." For lack of anything more specific, we

identify indices, particularly temporal ones, which we try to draw upon to

discern the nature of the cause.

Even without identifying the source in the sense of the nature of the causal

object, we can still follow with precision the causal history of the sound itself.

For example, we can trace the evolution of a scraping noise (accelerating,

rapid, slowing down, etc.) and sense changes in pressure, speed, and

amplitude without having any idea of what is scraping against what.

The Source as a Rocket in Stages

Remember that a sound often has not just one source but at east two, three,

even more. Take the sound of the felt? tip pen with which I am writing this

draft. The sound's two main sources are the pen and the paper. But there are

also the hand gestures involved in writing and, further, I who am writing. If

this sound is recorded and listened to on a tape recorder, sound sources will

also include the loudspeaker, the audiotape onto which the sound was

recorded, and so forth.

Let us note that in the cinema, causal listening is constantly manipulated by

the audiovisual contract itself, especially through the phenomenon of

synchresis. Most of the time we are dealing not with the real initial causes of

the sounds, but causes that the film makes us believe in.

Answer 2

Casual listening is when you listen to music, a podcast, or any other form of audio content without giving it your full attention. It is typically done in the background while engaging in another activity, like studying, working, or exercising. Casual listening is a way to passively enjoy music or content without actively focusing on it.