Is Technology Muting Our Voice?

Posted: October 6, 2018

This contradicts itself, doesn’t it? With developing technology, we believe that our voice is becoming more powerful every day.

We can speak or give our opinion on any subject and put it on social media and people who are connected to us can know about it. It was never this simpler before.

It was the high school year when I wrote my first article on the subject, ‘Technology: A boon or a bane’, with the help of the internet, of course! But it was too early to write on the boons and banes, I guess. Technology is still in developing phase and at that time, it was so new. The number of hours of the internet usage used to be decided before going online and chatting meant only the Yahoo Messenger (which I still don’t know how to use!) Having an account on Orkut was a big deal; kind of advancement. The wallpapers on the desktops were selected keenly. And that was not enough, screensavers, especially those which changed automatically at regular intervals, were the important part of the on computers.

Check it out!

But these all seem like a boon now because it was limited back then; at least for that period of time. Otherwise, I always told my students in the first year to the third year that technology is limitless, the knowledge is endless. You have to keep yourself updated if you want to have your career in it. But even those who don’t have a career in technology or IT for that matter, also find it mandatory to keep themselves updated, just like some routine. It’s not bad, but it is exhausting sometimes. Though it is somehow helpful in the regular chores; things are getting easy and communications easier. And like I said, everyone has a voice now. But does that voice has a sound? Let’s see.

So why I feel that the technology is muting our voice? I feel like it has taken away my voice, but why? When I say voice here, I mean voice. Not the opinion, not the thought, but the actual voice used in the verbal conversation.

I often communicate with people over emails and messages while taking their interviews or writing their stories. And over the years, I am finding it extremely comfortable. I choose emails over phone calls. You know the heights, I WhatsApped my sister who was upstairs and called her for the lunch downstairs. This is not about laziness (fine, it is!) but it is also about not using my voice to call my sister. Even the WhatsApp knows; it gives the option- ‘Can’t talk. WhatsApp Only’!

When I am supposed to give some information to a friend, I jabber, ‘I will send you the message.’ When surrounded by people and listening to them, I may get a couple of ideas to write on and also notice their grammar in my mind, but it takes me second, third and fourth thoughts to speak out loud about it. I often fall short of words (God! how do I even call myself a writer?).

I always believed that with technology, we could keep the communications alive, but I had no idea that hearing each other’s voice would become a rare thing. Today, we send messages in WhatsApp groups to wish for birthdays and anniversaries and forget to call them, or sometimes just feel like not calling because we already sent the message.

Here is the question: Communication has become easier and more handful or the voices are being forgotten? Give it a thought. When I felt an urge to share my thoughts on this subject, I had thought about making a video blog on this where I would SPEAK WORDS. But as you must have derived the idea by now, I chose to type over speaking.

I am working on my voice. Are you?

P.S. Work on it with someone else, not me!

Published earlier here.

Image Source Pixabay

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