The latest

An analysis of more than 2,000 people in the United States and several other countries found a 28 percent decline in daily speech from 2005 to 2019. Each passing year corresponded to roughly 300 fewer spoken words a day, equivalent to two or three minutes of conversation. The decrease was particularly pronounced among people under 25, amid a broader shift toward texting, digital services and interactions requiring little or no speech.

Details

• Unexpected discovery: Valeria Pfeifer, an assistant professor of psychology and counseling at the University of Missouri at Kansas City, noticed the pattern while studying gender differences in speech. She revisited the data to determine whether it persisted, with the scale becoming apparent across the full 14-year period. Pfeifer described the finding as a large and alarming observation.
• Everyday recordings: The analysis, published in July in Perspectives on Psychological Science, used audio recordings from 22 separate studies. Participants carried recording devices for several days while continuing their normal routines, allowing researchers to examine spoken language across everyday settings rather than relying solely on participants’ estimates of their conversational activity.
• Cognitive demands: Producing an ordinary sentence requires the brain to retrieve and organise words, coordinate muscles, interpret another person’s response and formulate what comes next within fractions of a second. Brain regions including Broca’s area contribute to speech production and articulation, raising the possibility that regular conversation functions as a modest form of repeated cognitive exercise.
• Live versus text: Real-time conversation places particular demands on working memory and attention because speakers must follow what was said, prepare a response and continue listening. Text messages and email reduce that pressure by allowing revision before sending and preserving a visible record, limiting the immediate need to remember earlier parts of the exchange.
• Vanishing exchanges: Pfeifer suspects much of the decline may involve incidental conversations with strangers rather than discussions among relatives and close friends. Ordering kiosks, navigation tools, search engines and artificial intelligence can replace interactions that once required asking another person. Research indicates that speaking with strangers can leave people happier and more connected than they anticipate.

Background

Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam places declining spoken interaction within a longer retreat from face-to-face communal life. Americans began withdrawing from clubs, churches and neighbourhood organisations during the 1960s, after television expanded but decades before smartphones. Digital life may be accelerating that established trend, whose social consequences have included loneliness, polarisation, weakened communities and fewer friendships.

What’s next

The next indicator will be whether daily word counts measured after 2019 continue their decline, particularly among people under 25. Comparisons between live conversation and text-based communication will also focus on working memory, attention and perceived social connection.