Earphones and loud speech
PHOTO S.R. RAGHUNATHAN
Why does a person with ear phones (when listening to songs etc.) tend to speak more loudly than he normally does?
M. PAVAN
Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh
While we speak, we also listen along with the others whom we are speaking to. Normally, we maintain certain loudness as a matter of habit on the basis of the audibility of what we speak. In case what we speak is not clear to ourselves (even if it is loud and clear to others), then we raise the tone and speak a bit louder than normal. If the surroundings are very quiet, like in a library, closed room, etc, we speak at a low voice more by a habit than by discipline. Similarly, when we are in a noisy place like in a busy market, cinema theatre, beach, etc, we tend to speak a bit louder than normal.
When we are listening to songs, etc. through earphones, the sound of the music dominates our own voice on two counts; one, the eardrums receive earphone music more loudly (due to proximity) than our own voice and two, our voice is physically obstructed by the earphones which cover our ears. Remember, even if the earphones make no sound, still we tend to speak louder than normal (without earphones). Say, for example, we have cotton buds in the ears. We still speak louder.
Thus, how loud we speak is unknowingly attenuated by how clearly and audibly we ourselves listen what we speak. In a situation when our own voice is ‘appearing’ to be at less than normal level (due to obstruction or other noise), we speak louder than normal till our voice ‘appears normal’ to us. Naturally, for the others around us, we appear abnormally louder even when the situation does not warrant it.
PROF. A. RAMACHANDRAIAH
Jana Vignana Vedika
Warangal, Andhra Pradesh
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