We’re talking much less than we did a few years ago, especially those younger than 25. A July analysis in Perspectives on Psychological Science covered more than 2,000 people and found daily speech dropped by about 300 words a year, a 28 percent decline from 2005 to 2019. Valeria Pfeifer, assistant professor at the University of Missouri at Kansas City, called it a “big and alarming observation.”
This is not a social curiosity, as speaking is a demanding neurological process. Researchers quoted in the article suggest talking itself may be a cognitive exercise and wonder if apps, texting and AI remove incidental interactions with strangers and lead to people feeling less connected. Covid-19 isolation may have hit Gen Zers hard.
Source: The Washington Post, September 2, 2026. Link. Pfeifer suspects that any decline in speech may have less to do with conversations among close friends and family than with the disappearance of smaller, more incidental exchanges mostly with strangers. A burger can be ordered from a kiosk. Google can give directions. ChatGPT can help settle debates about facts such as who was the actor in a certain movie. Each innovation eliminates an interaction that once might have required talking to another person.
INSIGHTS: An email or text may answer a question quickly, but it can cost teams the mental engagement and connections that face-to-face or phone conversations provide. These conversations may solidify team engagement and help Gen Zers be amazing forces on teams more quickly than without them.
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