From Newsgroup: sci.lang
https://www.theatlantic.com/family/2026/07/talking-less-reasons/688074/
archived at
https://archive.ph/H6RT8
Another Symptom of Growing Isolation
A recent study found that people spoke
fewer words a day in 2019 than in 2005.
July 27, 2026, 7 AM ET
...
... according to a recent study published in the
journal Perspectives on Psychological Science,
people now are talking less and less. For the
study, the psychologists Valeria Pfeifer, of the
University of Missouri-Kansas City, and Matthias
Mehl, of the University of Arizona, analyzed data
from thousands of participants in the United
States, Mexico, Australia, and Europe. The
subjects carried around a device that randomly
recorded sound bites of their speech throughout the
day. In 2005, when the studies began, the average
number of words that each participant spoke in a
day was 16,632; in 2019, when the research
concluded, the average was 11,900. Each year, the
participants spoke about 338 fewer words a day
than they did in the previous year, amounting to a
decline of about 28 percent over the entire time
period.
From what I can tell, two main reasons seem to be
driving this gradual silencing. The first is that
conversation requires, at the very least, the
presence of another person. But during the study
period, people almost everywhere spent more and
more time alonerCoa trend that only accelerated
after the study ended, as the pandemic drove
millions of people into further isolation.
...
The other big factor is the rise of digital
communication, such as texting and social media,
as well as online shopping, ordering, and many,
many other -ings.
...
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