While browsing YouTube one night, I stumbled upon a variety of videos by StoryCorps. Their ‘mission’, if you will, is to give people from all different backgrounds the opportunity to share their stories. There were only fourteen videos on the channel but each one of them was surprisingly compelling. There was a simple story told by a brother and sister of their old Sunday school teacher and then there were heart-wrenching stories those who lost their loved ones on September 11th. The one I was able to identify the most with was entitled “The Human Voice”.
“The Human Voice” was narrated by Studs Terkel. Terkel was known for his oral histories and
was also a radio broadcaster. In this
recording, he speaks about being on a train in the airport and nobody is
speaking. There is a crowded car and yet
the only thing that is heard is the mechanical voice of the overhead speaker. Thinking
back to all the times I was on a train in the airport, I can’t remember a
single person talking to another. The doors began to close in the car and a
young couple rushed in. All of the
others on the train were upset at them when the computer said “Because of late
entry, we are delayed thirty seconds”.
Terkel spoke up with a reference to George Orwell’s 1984 to
which he got absolutely no response. He
then began to ask the people on the train what had happened to the human voice.
His first and only response was from a baby with a giggle.
After watching this video, I realized just how little people
talked to each other in public places or in private because of technology. When I am walking to class, I see countless amounts
of people listening to their iPods, talking on their phones, or texting. Even
when I am in class, I notice kids on their electronics choosing to talk to
people through a machine rather than turn to the student next to them and
strike up a conversation. I will admit
that I have done this plenty of time and I guess I have been pretty
hypocritical for scolding others in my head.
When my brother traveled to Fiji
Is that really awkward? No. It isn’t. I could just go over
to the person and strike up a friendly conversation about the weather and if
they don’t reciprocate, at least I tried. But in today’s day and age we have
fallen out of the habit of having a conversation with a person right in front
of us and settle for communicating through a little gadget that offers no true
interaction.
A few days ago, I was in my dorm with three of my other
friends. All four of us have either smart phones or another piece of technology
that allows us to get on the internet. We were all on Reddit. We were not
speaking to each other unless someone asked, “Did you see the post about cats?”
and the other three would simply reply, “Yup” and then scroll down the
page. About ten minutes into this cycle,
I pointed out the ludicrousness of the situation. The weather was nice, none of us had work, we
live on a fantastic campus, and we were all together and this was how we were
spending our time?
We have to use our voices more as humans and use our
voice. If we spend all our time
conversing through whatever new doohickey that comes out next month, we will
lose our human voice. We miss half of the exchange because we are not able to
see the other person’s body language or hear their tone of voice. We have to
continue voicing our opinions and views and stories about our life. I believe that Story Corps has a great
idea. They offer everyone a chance to
tell a story because the human voice is an important one. It’s the only one that
will never fail us.
