T is for Talking

Yes, the fact that I talk sounds like a pretty obvious thing to tell you about myself. But it’s not the talking so much as the lack of talking that I want to write about.

Over the past 10 years or so, my job (and in fact my entire lifestyle) has become very much centred around the digital world. This means that unlike when I first started working, I am sending more emails than I make phone calls. I have less meetings and more online chats.

Likewise with my social life, the advent of Facebook, email and live chat has meant that keeping in touch with friends requires a lot less actual out-loud conversation. I’m still expressing myself, getting my thoughts out there, but it’s less vocal and more touch-typed. This suits me because I like having the opportunity to think through what I want to say before I put it out there. I can take an extra few seconds to think about what I’m going to type – or in some cases hours longer. It’s kind of like streamlining my thoughts rather than just blurting out the first thing that pops into my head.


Monday to Friday I find that most of my conversations are held online and Saturday/Sunday are my talking days. The trouble with this is that I find talking less has made vocalising my thoughts both much less desirable and much more difficult. Remembering the fact that I’m already totally socially retarded, limiting the bulk of my vocal conversations to two days a week means that I’m out of practise.

I find that I stumble over sentences way more than I ever used to. Sometimes the word I’m thinking and the word that comes out of my mouth aren’t exactly the same. They often sound similar, but aren’t. I found myself singing along with the radio the other day and came out with ‘Won’t you take me to, Monkey Town’ at which I laughed, and then tried to sing again correctly, only to say ‘Monkey’ instead of ‘Funky’ yet again.

Trying to talk out loud while typing is also something of a challenge. A while back, while drafting something in AutoCAD, a colleague walked past and said ‘See you later’, to which I responded ‘Insert!’ while typing the word ‘ bye’. He just looked at me funny and continued on out the door.

I’m sure that I’m not the only person who has this problem. I’m sure there has to be some kind of epidemic sweeping the world of desk-job employees. Maybe I need to quit my job and get back into hospitality work. The only problem then would be that all of my talking would be dealing with abusive customers and then bitching about them once they were gone. I think I’m probably better off staying semi-mute and socially retarded.


This entry is part of my ‘A-Z of Me’ Series. 26 Days of alphabetically ordered random crap about me and my life. You can read the rest here.