Are two minutes silences an arbitrary sign of respect?

I believe 2 minutes of silence is so one can reflect. I think two minutes of discussion would probably only cover one persons thoughts and even then it may not be enough.

In an ideal world, those two minutes would be spent thinking about the person/people/thing/event/whatever that the silence was dedicated to. However, many people don’t really take this kind of thing seriously and just get silent when they’re told to.

I agree with @Pandora that discussion would be better than silence. That’s a much better idea!

It’s a period for self reflection which is always more beneficial than hearing someone else speak.