A new published research study found that spoken conversation is fading. We speak 338 fewer words to each other each day compared to an average day last year and this trend has been continuing for nearly 15 years. 

Some key numbers from the study:

• In 2005, the average person spoke about 15,900 words per day to other people.

• By 2019, that number plummeted to 12,700 words per day - a 20% decline in the volume of spoken words each day.

We have to ask ourselves: Where were those words lost? At the dinner table with family? During coffee with a friend? In spontaneous chats with neighbors or strangers? And is what is filling that space instead - text based communication or silence - leaving us worse off?

Talking to one another - sharing the cadence of our voices, our laughter, and our presence - is one of the most fundamentally human things we do. When we lose spoken dialogue, we give up something that has been central to our existence for millennia. The words we speak to each other are one of the most powerful ways we share, empathize, and connect.

Call a friend today instead of texting. Sit a little longer at the table with family. Say hello to the person at the cash register or in the elevator. Let’s make an intentional effort to reclaim what we have lost.

As Matthias Mehl, study co-author, said, “These 338 words are not one long conversation we stopped having. They are spread across small moments throughout the day—the brief exchange at the checkout, the neighbor you used to run into, the stranger you once asked for directions. Those moments add up, and their absence does too.”