Listen Here
By Pulse Staff
A recent article in the Washington Post explored a July study published in Perspectives on Psychological Science that found people are speaking roughly 300 fewer words a day with each passing year. It explains a 20 percent decline from 2005 to 2019 and says the drop is “especially pronounced among people younger than 25.”
The article poses the question about the effect technology has had on our communication habits; not just smartphones, but kiosks are faster, apps are easier, texts are less awkward.
Dr. Megan Adams, associate professor of media and communication at the University of Findlay, says those technological advancements are costing us in other ways.
“Absolutely. I think what we’re losing-when you think about it-is the ability to risk things and to do things that make us uncomfortable,” Adams said. “Because it’s uncomfortable having a conversation with someone.”
Adams explains that being uncomfortable is necessary in developing the ability to adapt and adjust. Avoiding those micro-moments of uncomfortableness that previous generations have grown up with is taking away from the ability to grow as a human.
“It’s like a muscle,” Adams said. “They’re not getting the practice. They’re not getting the little flexes that we grew up with.”
Adams has her own philosophy on how to stay human in an increasingly automated world. It’s called Whole Story Living.
“It has four pillars. The first one is Narrative Aliveness, and that one just requires really understanding how our inner stories, the stories we tell ourselves, the stories of culture, affect how we act in the world and understanding that we can change our perspectives and widen our perspectives and that we really do we can chart our own course.”
The second pillar is Relational Intelligence, which is about being able to understand how to connect to each other, learning how to listen, learning how to sit with difficult conversations and issues, and come to a consensus.
“The third is Human Centered Living,” Adams said. “That’s not losing the practices that make us feel human. Taking five or ten minutes out of our day to check in on our friends and being a part of our communities.”
The fourth pillar is the Sacred Ordinary, which she describes it as a more spiritual component.
“Like really understanding how everything around us is like a miracle. And there are all these things that we take for granted every day,” Adams said. “When we notice them and express our love and gratitude towards the ordinary things, we find ourselves staying more human.”
While technology may be evolving, the communication crutches it provides may have the opposite effect on human speech.
“When you study how humans are as a species, we are built for belonging, we are built for human-to-human connection. There’s physiological and biological evidence of that,” Adams said. “And I think that if we are not talking to one another, we are going to de-evolve because we’re going to lose community.”
