Laut einer Studie verlieren Menschen jedes Jahr 338 gesprochene Wörter, und das schon seit mindestens 15 Jahren. Der von den Forschern untersuchte Zeitrahmen von 2005 bis 2019 fällt mit dem Aufkommen von SMS, E-Mail und sozialen Medien zusammen. Es ist möglich, dass sich einige gesprochene Gespräche auf die digitale Kommunikation verlagert haben.
https://www.umkc.edu/news/posts/2026/march/are-we-talking-less-than-we-used-to.html
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The findings come from an analysis of audio data collected from more than 2,000 participants whose daily lives were sampled through short recordings of their natural environments. Together, the datasets represent 22 studies conducted across 14 years and include participants ranging from ages 10 to 94.
A loss of roughly 300 spoken words per day may initially not seem significant, but the decline adds up quickly. The study estimates the drop equals more than 120,000 fewer spoken words each year compared to the year before. Because spoken words usually occur in conversations with other people, the change may represent thousands of everyday interactions that are no longer taking place.
While yes, spoken words have shifted to written formats like texting, verbal conversations have characteristics that written communication does not always capture. Spoken language involves tone of voice, timing, emotional cues and immediate social feedback. Pfeifer suspects those elements play an important role in social relationships and well-being, but more research is needed to fully understand the differences.
Pfeifer has a background in linguistics and psychology, receiving her Ph.D. from the University of Arizona and worked as a postdoctoral researcher there for three years. Her research primarily focuses on the psychology of language and language behavior in everyday life. She runs the Language and Cognition lab at UMKC, where she studies how language shapes human emotion, cognition and social connection.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/17456916261425131
>“*New research suggests our daily conversations are shrinking, with people speaking 300 less words each day*“.
Apparently „fewer“ was one of the early casualties.
Look at TikTok and the effects it’s having on people’s speech and communications, people self censor all over the internet and even in real life. That’s just the effects of an algorithm designed to make advertisers feel more comfortable, I feel like that’s going to make AIs use those words less and the algorithms get adjusted and something small like that is already a feedback loop. If normal internet use has been causing this then the proliferation of ai is sure to accelerate it.
why waste time say lot word when few word do trick
I think there’s a lot of disdain for words that are viewed as flowery or opaque even if they’re pleasing to the ear or eye. Maybe it’s because we value precision and conciseness in our communication right now as a society. Just speculating.
That’s a weird way to phrase that. It makes it sound like vocabularies are shrinking (which I suspect is true), but really the study just shows that people are verbally speaking slightly less.
300 words is like one brief conversation. That seems statistically insignificant over the course of an entire year.
Plus yeah, of course it makes sense because of email, texting, discord, and other social media dm’s replacing the necessity of calling/speaking.
I actually would’ve thought there would be more of a measurable difference. I can’t remember the last time I spoke to someone on the phone. I just text.
I find this…discombobulating
„Have lost 338 words“? What does this mean exactly? Oh I see. They mean less words/ day spoken. They are not lost. Whew.
OP’s title says it’s a loss of 300 words „every year“, but the linked article makes it clear that it’s **per day**.