Fast Talkers and Slow Listeners

 

Maybe this is just me being a grumpy old man, but are people talking faster now than they used to?  I readily admit that my hearing is not what it used to be.  That’s why I wear hearing aids.  Mine are not cheap and can be adjusted to address almost every sound… except rapid speech.   

So what’s happened? Why are people talking so much faster these days?  Is it smart phones, too much texting, social media, fear and anxiety, bad parenting, the food we’re eating, the water we’re drinking…what could be causing so many people to talk like auctioneers?  The truth is there is no evidence that people are talking faster these days than they did in the past.  There are some studies indicating that people talk less than they used to, but not faster.

Personally, I am a slow speaker, always have been.  My word rate used to be 120-130 words per minute.  I am probably closer to 110-115 now.  130 to 150 is considered a good conversational or public speaking rate.   Above 170 is considered fast and quite a few people, especially younger ones, do tend to talk fast.  I expect those of us who grew up around slow talking Texas country folks, developed those slower speech patterns early on and it stuck with us. Even now I notice that younger people that have that “country” influence speak slower and usually with a thicker Texas accent.  In metro areas the accents seem to have melted away as the rate of speaking has increased.

But, the fact of the matter is that it takes longer for old people to process the words they hear into words they can understand.  As we Boomers have aged, we inevitably became “slow listeners”.  Words get lost in translation when they arrive too fast for our worn out brains.  It’s why some of us now turn on subtitles when watching television.  In a crowded noisy restaurant we pretend to know what someone is saying even when we’re only catching every other word that’s coming out of their mouth.  And if you’re trying to understand a fast talking woman who has a soft or high-pitched voice, she might as well be speaking Swahili.

The good news for “slow listeners” is there are some new technologies which can slow down rapid speech. The bad news is that they are very expensive and it’s new technology.  Eventually they will get better and more affordable, just… not….soon….. enough…… for…… some…… of………… us.