selective listening

I love this topic because EVERYONE does it, and I've even noticed people doing it while Im talking. They tend to drift off mid sentence and ignore important information. There are many examples I can think of when I used selective listening.  I've also been the person doesn't listen when things are overwhelming or 'hard' to understand. One particular obvious example is watching television, I fall victim to fun shows about style and weddings, because Im interested in them, when really I should be watching the news because of all the really important things going on around the world. What I can do to fix that is call my dad and ask him to speak to me about what's been happening in the news. I know the way I learn is a personal manner, I cannot watch something and learn, I need to hear it in lamens terms. I need to motivate myself to listen to opinons and shows that I wouldnt normally.
A great example of getting through high school was I would tune in while in class to things that interested me, like art  or computers:) Once I stepped foot into history or economics I began writing notes (before cell phones ) to all my friends, and used my selective listening. Particularly when Mr. Deetz said my name, because I had been put on the spot that I was not listening. Personally, it's a struggle to understand why some students loved that class, and for them, siting on a computer was torture, why we intuitively love certain things, makes us unique. I'm getting off point, so in order to fix that problem well I began hanging out in the hall or leaving campus. Now, with an adult mind, I still am at a loss for a solution to that problem. I would say study with friends from the class because I focus well with talking involved, so I guess that's the best solution I can come to.