2/26/10: Speaking vs. Writing

[swankivy]

Speaking vs. Writing

Some people express themselves best through speech, while others would prefer to put their ideas in text. Between speaking and writing, which do you feel you are best at? Which do you think is more valued in our society? If you had to give up either the ability to speak or the ability to communicate in text, which would it be?

[shadowfreder]

I definitely, definitely prefer to put my ideas in text (writing). The thing with speaking is that you communicate with more than just the words. And that can be either helpful or detrimental to your message. So, with writing, you get to edit and refine your communication a bit more.

I think our society definitely values speaking more. People much prefer to watch TV, or listen to the radio, as opposed to reading an essay.

If I had to give up one mode of communication it would be speaking. I'm not much of an orator to begin with. I tend to communicate better through writing/drawing/diagrams.

[SHO!]

Some people express themselves best through speech, while others would prefer to put their ideas in text. Between speaking and writing, which do you feel you are best at? Which do you think is more valued in our society?

I think I do both at about the same level. I believe I speak like I write and I write like I speak (sans the typos, though I do flub my words at times). I guess the real difference is with the ease in which I can engage in speech whereas typing (if it isn't in a dynamic conversation) is a huge chore. However, I think I prefer what I say to be in text, that way I can easily reference past ideas and conversations.

Our society, American society, definitely favors speaking over writing. Lately, the past few decades, there seem to be a great push towards ignorance. There are those that seem to enjoy the bliss of ignorance and others that revel in keeping the ignorant in the dark, even deluding them with outright fantasies and lies to keep themselves in power (or in recent cases, undermine the authority of opposing factions). A lot of that is pushed by the hypnotizing propaganda of passionate speaking while crushing the enlightening possibilities that reading carefully for one's self could accomplish. In some places (like where I grew up) reading is almost vilified but clever spoken words quickly become repeated dogma.

If you had to give up either the ability to speak or the ability to communicate in text, which would it be?

Now that one is tough. Both have very strong points for me. Giving up communicating in text would mean an end to reading or recording my thoughts in a way that was desirable to reflect on myself. And I believe giving up speech would take away my most persuasive and passionate form of getting my ideas across. I guess if I had to choose, and all other technologies remain the same as they are, I'd have to choose speech. Three reasons: I think I can still write somewhat passionately (if not quite as effectively) as I speak; strong/large yet mute characters in fiction are always cool; and I really can't stand the sound of my recorded voice so I'd never be able to save my thoughts and go over them again without cringing if I chose speech over text.

[blondiviolette]

I'm certainly better at writing than speaking and I prefer writing to speaking, too. I don't speak very well in social situations; am very quiet/don't say much at all and sometimes talk too fast which makes people have to ask "Pardon?", also sometimes I have trouble getting my thoughts into words and then people can't follow that either cause there are pauses, and they give this long stare while I'm talking, so yeah, speech is not the strongest suit. I would have to give up the ability to communicate in text if forced into that ultimatum because so much of life you have to talk to people using your mouth rather than writing; but also writing in text is just as important, though it would be very annoying having to write down everything if you couldn't talk in speech anymore. Then again of course losing the ability to write in text would be devastating cause then that means you couldn't communicate with friends online, or write anything at school, or do creative writing... that would be extremely sad.

It is definitely more valued in society to be able to speak rather than write. People seem to get further ahead in life if they can say what they're trying to with confidence. If you're not good at speaking, the public question it a lot, whereas if you're writing for example on the internet, you can write however sloppily you like (i.e. with text speak) and a lot of people won't care.
It really depends who you're hanging around with whether speech or writing is more valued. Like if you were with a social group you'd have to talk a lot but if you're somewhere where the main purpose is to put your mind to a piece of paper, then speech doesn't matter so much.
It would be nice if writers could be more valued. It seems much of the world is based on a socially structured rule of breaking out and getting on top, be confident, stand tall, speak well! And if you don't... well... "Oh why don't you speak much?", "You're very shy aren't you?", "Speak up! Lose the nerves, there's nothing to fear!". If you don't speak well you're sort of looked down upon as a person with no backbone/uncaring/not trying which is often very untrue!

[meggie]

I would say that I have equal ability, too. My main problem is that of audience. Unless I'm surrounded by my nearest and dearest, people often look at me like they don't know what the fuck I'm talking about.

In our society, verbal communication is definitely more valued. Just look at the journalism industry - most newspapers are going out of business. People prefer to get their news on tv. But many people don't read very fast and they have a short attention span (compared to me, anyway ).

As to which method I'd lose, that's awfully tough. As a mother, speech is so important, especially when dealing with a toddler. Imagine not singing to your baby! I mean, you could communicate via sign language or writing down what you wanted to say, but that would be difficult with small children. On the other hand, not being able to read or write would be torture. In the long run, I think I'd have to sacrifice the written word in favor of the spoken one. I prefer to talk on the phone rather than sending an email and one of my favorite things in the world is to have a marathon conversation with my best friend.

[biosparite]

I approach your question from the perspective of practicing law. Written communication and clear spoken communication are both critical for success. I read a lot of deposition testimony after the fact even when I have been present, and I find the transcribed flow of questions and answers often shows a great deal of choppiness, of a witness' starting, stopping, beginning again, and so on. Some of the lawyers' questions aren't all that well framed, either. Yet when I am present at the live testimony, I don't notice the fragmental nature of the testimony and am primarily focused on whether either a hostile witness has been responsive to my question or my witness is avoiding digging himself into a deep hole. So despite the somewhat chaotic nature of spoken communications, I think our brains are programmed to find the thread of meaning and to edit out the chaotic parts. Reading text, however, is a more formal exercise from which non sequiturs and poor grammar emerge immediately and obviously. I am sure I write more carefully than I speak unless I stay tightly focused on listening to myself. NPR just had a story about the near-extinction of Braille because blind people are relying more and more on audiobooks. One consequence for blind persons who do not read is that their writing skills suffer significantly. There were times when rhetorical skills were highly valued, e.g., the speeches of Patrick Henry approaching the time of the American Revolution. Do you know many people who now would sit through a couple of hours of debate? Many people would await the sound bites on their cable network of choice. I have a news article form the Tuscaloosa, AL newspaper circa 1897 relating to a public debate on the topic of free love; most of the town turned out for the spectacle. There were no media feeds to distract, so entertainment was mainly had by listening to live performances (one of my female ancestors took the position advocating free love and of course lost).

[synesthesia]

I'm tired of speaking. Especially since I answer phones half the day at work and no one hears me.
I need to come with subtitles or be like Strongbow and just zap thoughts into people's brain so they know just what I mean and how I feel.
Hence, why I like the internet because I can just write my thoughts out all the time.

[SHO!]

May 29, 2010 21:38:44 GMT -5 synesthesia said:

I'm tired of speaking. Especially since I answer phones half the day at work and no one hears me.
I need to come with subtitles or be like Strongbow and just zap thoughts into people's brain so they know just what I mean and how I feel.
Hence, why I like the internet because I can just write my thoughts out all the time.

An interesting experiment would be to choose to stop talking for a while. Maybe on vacation or some other place where you aren't readily known. Bring a notepad, or one of those arm keyboards mute people use (actually, nowadays a cellphone with a nice keyboard and large screen would suffice) and type or write everything you have to say to people. See what it's like to not talk at all for long periods of time. I think maybe I'd like to try something like that myself some day.