In recent years, I have noticed that people no longer talk to each other. Texting, tweeting, and posting on social media has become the norm. I consider texting and tweeting to be the lowest sense of communication between us. I’ve seen people text each other while sitting at the same table in a restaurant, even before the pandemic.

Texting has its place in this fast-paced world we live in today, but it shouldn’t be used exclusively. For one thing, it should NOT be used to inform a loved one about a death in the family or the birth of a new child. Something as important as that needs to be communicated truthfully using your own voice, with emotion, not words or emojis. Text messaging was solely invented by wireless phone carriers to add a new paid service to their cell phone plans. Actually, texting is nothing new; it’s just a revamped earlier form of communication: teletype and Morse code.

Have you seen any of the latest YouTube videos? I have seen several product demo and review videos with no verbal audio or no audio. I’m not just referring to videos uploaded by the “average person”, but videos from the product manufacturers themselves. As a voice actor, this worries me. The videos show images or clips of the different products with subtitles on the bottom screen. Why? Have we lost our ability to verbalize something?

We as humans have been wounded with the power of speech. We were taught in schools to make vowels and form words. What happened? The next time you feel the need to communicate with a loved one, try a novel idea: call them on the phone and talk to them. Let them hear your voice saying, hello! How are you?

Technology has a way of creeping into our lives in the hope of making everything in life more convenient. We all need to be diligent about how, where and why we need the electronic device, before considering making the often expensive purchase. Will it really make our tasks easier or much more complicated? Computers are wonderful when they work properly, but what happens when they go wrong? Technology must be kept in its proper place at all times.

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