I’m having a hard time talking with people who always want to finish my sentences with me/for me. Apparently this is a style of active listening where finishing someone’s sentence is supposed to show that you’re listening to what they are saying but this makes no sense to me.
If you’re speaking you’re not listening. If you’re speaking over someone, even if you’re saying the same thing they are, you’re still interrupting them.
Can someone explain the concept behind this style of active listening in a way a slightly autistic person can understand?
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Assuming the sentence is finished correctly, the subconscious idea is that it offers proof that the listener took in enough information from you and from context clues that they could predict what you were about to say, and that you’re thinking along the same lines. It’s also a way of signaling that you’re sharing a thought or experience, which is preferable to disinterest, apathy, or disengagement.
A more polite way to do active listening would be to respond at an appropriate time in a way that rephrases or summarizes the information while also continuing the conversation. Like:
> Person 1: “I think doing X is better. I find it makes things easier.”
> Person 2: “**If you do X,** have you also tried Y? It would **make it even easier**.”
But not everyone is that polite, and some people are just prone to blurting things out when they realize the trajectory of your conversation. It’s like the eureka of solving a small puzzle.
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