The Human Voice

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 11^th.  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 a few years ago, he told me how surprised he was when a Fijian would just sit down right next to a stranger at McDonald’s and strike up a conversation.  In a sparsely filled room, I tend to gravitate towards the area where nobody is sitting and whip out my cell phone and start texting. My texts generally go something like this: ohmygosh so awkward right now I’m alone and there is only one other person in the room.

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.