| In my world, typing has long ago superceded regular conversation as my primary means of communication. Whether it was email, posting on Fidonet, Usenet, IM, and the occasional blog entry, my online presence has eclipsed my offline for more years than I care to count. One consequence is that I've paid more attention to how I write, but another consequence is that I communicate more slowly. Let me elaborate--I'm not talking about the time it takes to type out words, although that is part of it. I'm talking about my brain slows down while these words appear in Times New Roman on my screen. I'm talking about the ^H^H^H and ctrl-shift-left + delete that my unconscious mind takes care of several times per sentence. It takes me about 20 seconds to type one sentence. In that time, I could've spoken four. And before I hit submit, I'll read and reread what I've typed for coherency and editing errors that appear only when read in context. This is, after all, going to be archived not only on this blogging site, but various other web archival sites so for posterity, I'd better get it right. That's fine and dandy when I'm actually writing, but my speech has suffered as a result. I throw in filler words, say the first thing that pops in my head, and need to reconstruct sentences multiple times before I get it right. And forget about me telling a story or a joke. My brain has grown accustomed to live editing of my sentences that it doesn't bother to get it right the first time. My listening skills are terrible as well. The impatient person that I am, I skim what I read, then reread if it's interesting. There is no parallel in listening, yet my brain does the same thing--it tunes in and out during sermons and presentations. It can't concentrate for more than a minute before it goes off and processes a few CPU cycles thinking about what I did that morning. By the time I tune back in, I might have missed an important bit of info, but unless the speaker likes repetition, I'm not going to be able to retrieve that moment. I've been trying to improve for years, but can't say I know how...listening extra hard? Speaking slowly? Old habits die hard. A lazy brain is tough to cure. |
