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Too Much Talk
It stops us communicating
Now must ye speak to your kinsmen and they must speak to you,
After the use of the English, in straight-flung words and few. (Kipling)
Used to be that talking a lot was considered a sign of a pretty poor type of person. “Empty vessels,” it was said, “make most noise.” Silence was rigourously enforced in classrooms. In offices, too much chatter was a sign that people were not working. It was not considered necessary to have meetings all the time — you were supposed to know your job, come in, get on with it and not waste time. Rather typically, both sexes accused the other of being the worst offenders: men complained about women ‘gossiping’ while women moaned about men ‘going on’ about football and cars.
Nowadays, however, if you aren’t talking, all the time, then there is an assumption that something is wrong with you. It seems to be impossible, indeed impermissible, to be in proximity to a person without constantly speaking to them. Classrooms, once quiet working spaces where pupils sat in rows, facing front, either listening to the teacher or working alone, are now gossip shops where desks are arranged in groups with kids facing inwards. This is suposed to facilitate discussion and teamwork. It actually facilitates chatter, and what they call ‘teamwork’ we used to call ‘copying’. Offices, which…
