Being quiet while someone talks isn’t the same as hearing them. Silence can still be a waiting room for your own point.

Silence is easy to mistake for attention, including by the person being silent. There is a kind of quiet that is only the time you spend loading your reply, and the other person can usually feel the difference even if they cannot name it. Real listening changes what you were going to say. If your response was fully formed before they finished, you were waiting rather than hearing.

Notice in your next conversation whether you already know your next line. If you do, drop it and ask a question instead. Proof that you listened is that what you say could not have been written in advance.