The English language has between 470,000 to 1 million words, yet the average extent of vocabulary people use on a daily basis is only about 13,000.
- Only 5% of the words people use during the day are unique words, with all others being repeated.
- The average person uses between 2.67% and 3.35% of their vocabulary every day.
- Every year that passes, the average person speaks 300 words less per day (this is thought to be due to a rise in digital communication).
Additionally, recent research found that 45% of adults prefer communication through online tools, 30% prefer email, 12% prefer face-to-face, and only 6% prefer phone calls. Technology is a primary factor prompting people to become more interested in quick sound bites that don’t require emotional involvement, demand very little intellectual stimulation, and can be accomplished in a short time and with very little energy expenditure.
Now let’s combine those stats with another aspect of communication: reading.
- 21% of adults in the US read below a 5th-grade level.
- 19% of high school graduates in the US can’t read.
- 45 million adults in the US are functionally illiterate.
- 50% of adults in the US can’t read a book written at an eighth-grade level.
What all this means is that our communication skills are on a downward slope. Our ability to express our innermost thoughts and feelings coherently and with meaning is shrinking. Our ability to convey complicated, context-rich ideas and concepts is diminishing. What this also means is that our IQs are also waning.
A University of Michigan study called Monitoring the Future and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data show “a sharp decline in cognitive skills, particularly among younger generations. Teens and young adults are struggling with basic cognitive tasks like maintaining focus and processing information.”
The Financial Times has reported that young people are spending less time reading and more time scrolling through digital screens — a key driver behind the decline in cognitive abilities.
“Studies suggest that excessive screen time, particularly on social media, can negatively impact both verbal and cognitive skills. Prolonged exposure to screens makes it harder to concentrate and retain information, which may explain why many young adults are struggling with cognitive tasks.
The connection between technology and cognitive decline is not limited to attention span issues. Research has shown that the digital age may be rewiring the brain in ways that make it more difficult to perform tasks that require deep thinking and sustained focus. … With the ease of access to information online, many individuals may find it less necessary to engage in deep thinking, instead relying on quick, surface-level insights.”
The word that comes to mind to describe our current state of communication is “fatuous.” We appear to have become hooked on meaningless attention grabbers and call it entertainment, politics, and news. We’re also readily substituting words with any of the available 3,953 emojis. Additionally, words are being shortened for purposes of input speed, emotional shorthand, or avoidance, and trendiness.
We’ve become a nation that, on one side of the swinging pendulum’s arc, is the creation of noise, and the other side is all about vacuous chit-chat. The noise side produces everything that’s communication bling, pretentious bluster, glib pomposity, and manipulative spin without any real substance (and oftentimes short on factual reality).
The chit-chat side is equally without substance and relies on quick text bursts, emojis, and gifs that are supposed to convey emotional range. On the surface, they convey an idea more than a fully felt emotion. What’s missing is the all-important nuance, inflection, emphasis, and depth. Chit chat isn’t about sustaining conversations, but about quick bursts of emotional info bytes. They are also a shortcut used to avoid dealing with one’s emotions.
Bringing this back to our IQs, research shows that adults are now struggling with basic math and reasoning tasks. The upshot is that our reliance on our digital devices and AI apps is making intellectual tasks harder to comprehend and engage with. What we’re experiencing is cognitive entropy, wherein our verbal reasoning and problem-solving skills are decreasing at an alarming rate.
This trend has reintroduced an old term: brain rot. And just like a dystopian novel, we’re letting ourselves devolve while AI evolves. Our naïve belief is that AI is helping make life easier and increasing our productivity, which will give us more time to pursue our interests, such as scrolling on our phones:
- The average US screen time has reached 7 hours and 2 minutes daily.
- 41% of teenagers spend over 8 hours on screens each day.
- The average person spends 2 hours and 21 minutes daily on social media.
- The average Gen Zer spends around 9 hours per day on screens.
What this is all leading to is the understanding that all the time we’re spending on our phones is time missed connecting with other human beings via phone and video calls or, better yet, face-to-face interactions. We’re replacing the real world with a digitized, disconnected world where we ironically believe clicking on “like,” using emojis and gifs, posting quick “comments,” and posting inane videos for our followers equate with “connection.”
This false sense of connection is creating some serious drawbacks: communication misunderstandings, a decline in empathy and consideration, loneliness and separation, physical withdrawal from social relations, difficulty in expressing oneself, conflict avoidance, increased anxiety and depression, weakened family and community bonds, loss of shared experiences, generational disconnection, difficulty in collaborating with others, an inability to work in team situations, and a disregard and lack of respect for leadership, authority, and elder life experiences and wisdom. The outcome is a lack of fulfillment in one’s life and an inadequate ability to socialize in environments.
For many people, their attachment to their devices has become a bona fide addiction. Researchers have found that therapeutic treatment for addiction to our devices is more difficult to deal with than an addiction to heroin.
There really seems to be only one solution to this: get off one’s devices and start talking with others. As uncomfortable as that may be, it’s always the first step that’s the most difficult simply because we have to allow ourselves to be vulnerable, set aside our fears, and just go with the flow. That sounds trite, but it really is that simple.
The old adage of when you fall off a horse, dust yourself off, and get back on the horse is apt. Social interactions can be messy, complicated, confusing, hurtful, and offensive — and they can be just the opposite, leading to fulfilling and rewarding relationships and life experiences.
Speech pathologists suggest taking communication workshops, role-playing and practicing communication, reading and listening to podcasts about communication, and seeking feedback from others about how you’re communicating. They also advise to “learn to listen and listen to learn” as a way to remain present and attentive in conversations.
The outcome will be a life that’s far richer, engaging, and connected. It’s time for a communication reboot — and the results will be worth it! As Paul J. Meyer has said, “Communication — the human connection — is the key to personal and career success.”
