Talking 2x Speed
The other day, Megan got mad at me. She caught me gesturing for her to talk faster. You see, what she was saying was interesting, she was just saying it too slowly. I knew where she was going, I just wanted her to get there.
Yes, I’m sort of a monster.
This is the kind of post you only write in the middle of a 7-hour plane ride, I suppose. But bear with me.
So, people may know of my predilection for listening to things. And for having my phone read me things. And I often have this done at 2x “normal” speed, if not more. It’s a fantastic way to condense information. Many podcast apps offer this functionality, and Apple’s own accessibility tools do as well. Highly recommend.
Anyway, there’s a downside to this. Which is that I often find myself now wishing people spoke faster in real life. You know, in the day-to-day mundane conversations. Again, I know how bad this sounds. But it’s true!
Most people talk very slowly. In fact, people who talk quickly are often made fun of — and for good reason. When you listen to a podcast or anything else at 2x speed the people often sound like they’re in The Chipmunks (though Apple and the like now make this much more pleasant). And people who talk too quickly have long been deemed annoying to society. But I can’t help but wonder if that will change.
If/when vocal computing does take off, we’re going to want to condense our way of speaking and listening into chunks of condensed information. It’s only natural. We give leeway to a person talking at a certain cadence, but we likely won’t offer the same respect to a machine. Many of us already don’t.
And whether we realize this or not, there will be real-world ramifications here. I’m already experiencing them. Maybe I’m weird — entirely possible! — but I’m not sure I’m that weird in this case. I think I may just be ahead of the curve…
I often find myself thinking about meeting length, and wondering if such meetings couldn’t be half as long if there was simply a setting to have people speak at 2x speed. Again, I know how crazy this sounds. But what if it’s not so crazy? What if this happens? What if society really does start speaking faster?
Anyway, back to my flight. Carry on.
(Written somewhere over Utah en route to San Francisco from New York)
