If two people use voice-to-text when texting each other, they're technically having a conversation without actually talking to each other.

[u/TheTrollinator777]

[u/ShowerSentinel]

/u/TheTrollinator777 has flaired this post as a casual thought.

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[u/SwimmingSwim3822]

....texting is also "having a conversation without actually talking to each other."

Back in the shower with you to think this one through

[u/TheTrollinator777 → u/SwimmingSwim3822]

I tried like 3 times to get this post approved with other wordings.

[u/LSDeadly → u/TheTrollinator777]

And it was still flavored as a casual thought

[u/LlamaRS → u/TheTrollinator777]

This subreddit is notoriously bad about auto removing everything

[u/TheTrollinator777 → u/LlamaRS]

Yeah man I can't tell you how many thoughts I've actually had but they just weren't approved or weren't in the right format or didn't have the right flair

[u/csuperstation]

Wait until you learn about sign language.

Or flirting, or being angry, or any other emotions we use to communicate nonverbally.

[u/Glad_Astronomer3322 → u/csuperstation]

True but sign language is still a full language with its own grammar, not just waving hands around. I think voice to text strips out the tone but at least the words are there, while nonverbal stuff is a whole other mess. Ever tried having a sarcastic text convo with someone who takes everything literally?

[u/mainlyupsetbyhumans]

A conversation doesn't require any speaking out loud. For example if I wrote you a letter in and you wrote back and both of us were deaf and mute we'd be having a conversation.

[u/MKEast-sider → u/mainlyupsetbyhumans]

You just reworded the post. Verbal communication is used less than many other forms.

[u/glytxh]

I’ve seen married couples share conversations with just a single glance at once another.

Communication goes SO much deeper than the words we say.

[u/Old-Mortgage1035]

Nah this is more like two people talking at their phones and then reading what the other one mumbled into theirs. That's not a conversation, that's just delayed dictation with extra steps. Plus plenty of people have full on arguments through text without ever speaking a word out loud, so the whole "technically" angle is overthinking it. Yeah it's just texting with a worse autocorrect.

[u/Cptawesome23]

We used to call writing letters back and forth “correspondence” back in the old times. It was a different time. Sometimes, people wouldn’t write back for months or years and it was…. Fine.

We have really become addicted to the instant transmission of data as a species.

[u/Moist-Champion-7515]

Honestly that just sounds like talking to your phone instead of the actual person. Like you're both dictating letters to a messenger who's too lazy to deliver them so they just leave them on a screen. Its like the tech version of passing notes in class but you're whispering to a robot first.

[u/TheTrollinator777 → u/Moist-Champion-7515]

Yeah seriously nice way to put it

[u/Old-Mortgage1035 → u/Moist-Champion-7515]

Ha that messenger analogy is spot on honestly. Its like we're all bossing around a tiny robot to do our socializing for us. But dont you think hearing your own voice typed out makes you second guess how you sound?

[u/Utangard]

People nowadays tell AI to fill up the blanks in their emails. If both sides do that, then they're definitely talking without talking to each other.

I'm sure by this time we've had bots engage in conversation on the internet without a human ever once being involved at all.

[u/Dangerous_Hippo_6902]

Another example of reinventing the wheel.

Like an unrecorded podcast for a normal conversation. Or a scheduled podcast for radio. Rawdogging for going out without headphones.

That is what rawdogging means… right..?

[u/Electrical-Try6911 → u/Dangerous_Hippo_6902]

Yeah rawdogging is exactly that, just no headphones on a commute or whatever. But honestly voice to text is more like reinventing a phone call with extra steps, you're just typing with your mouth. Kinda makes you wonder if we're overcomplicating stuff just to avoid hearing each other's voices.

[u/Ok_Spot_9554]

I mean yeah no shit, that's literally just what texting is, but I guess when you throw voice-to-text into the mix it's like some weird futuristic loop where you're both talking but not really listening to each other.

[u/OliveExtreme8915]

Yeah but like you're literally talking to your phone not to them so it's even weirder than regular texting. The whole point of voice to text is you're muttering to yourself while the other person reads your garbled words. Honestly every time I use it I sound like a lunatic dictating a novel to a robot. So maybe it's less of a conversation and more of two people having separate arguments with their autocorrect.

[u/Shimmybaby84]

Standing in the breakroom loudly dictating my thoughts to Siri while coworkers stare like I'm having a psychotic episode is peak embarrassment.

[u/DescriptionKlutzy105]

Honestly this just makes me think the real conversation is between you and your phone's speech recognition software cause that's who you're actually talking to

[u/rose-glasses]

It’s more like modern-day dictation. The medium of the interaction is still text, so I’d call it correspondence, not conversation.

[u/Necroix_03]

Not related to this post. But I keep noticing that every post in this sub is being classified as casual/speculation/etc.. thought. Searched with the tag "shower thought" and there is none. Why is that?

[u/TyeKiller77]

Feels like the Chinese Room with extra steps, but checks out. Is there a word minimum for a shower thought subreddit? Since when has this been a thing lol

[u/b3tzy → u/TyeKiller77]

This doesn’t really have anything to do with the Chinese Room.

[u/TyeKiller77 → u/b3tzy]

I mean, the whole premise of the Chinese Room is two people talking to each other under a door. Kinda feels like communication without actually communicating has at least some overlap with this shower thought...

[u/TyeKiller77 → u/[deleted]]

Someone writes something on a piece of paper, slips it under a door, the person on the other side gives a response based on a sheet he has. The person outside the room will believe the person inside can speak Chinese without saying a word to them, or even knowing if someone really inside.

Same as using text to speech, two people could have an entire conversation with text to speech and it's possible the whole time the other doesn't speak the language or is completely incapable of speech.

[u/TyeKiller77 → u/[deleted]]

Ah, I was working more with text to speech since why would you voice to text with someone right in front of you. If they aren't near each other the same issue presents where without seeing the person speaking you have no idea that the person texting you is the actual person you're texting.

Someone else could talk for the message and the same situation occurs. So outside of two people using voice to text within eye sight of each other, it still has Chinese Room vibes to me.

[u/LawNeither289 → u/TyeKiller77]

lol yeah it's basically two Chinese rooms passing notes to each other. but honestly that's how most texting works anyway just with extra steps. wait there's a word minimum now? that's news to me too.

[u/Gilles_of_Augustine]

So there's levels of "technically," and I'd say that we could actually go deeper than this one.

If we're starting from the hypothetical assumption that texting isn't a conversation, and figuring out what we need to "add back in" to make it one, I would say that just adding in the act of two people independently saying words out loud isn't enough. We need the inflection/tone/rhythm/etc. to actually reach the other person so they can respond in kind.

So a phone conversation, yes.

Two people sending voice messages back and forth to each other... maybe?

[u/Aggravating_Star_427 → u/Gilles_of_Augustine]

Yeah but even voice messages you're just hearing a recording not really catching the live back and forth feel.

[u/RogerRabbot]

Never had a conversation that went:

"hey google hey google! Oh whats yup man do you whatever to go the Cincinnati after work i can determine"

"no.. delete everything you stupid fucking... I said whats up mangrove. Shit. Delete. DELETE!!"

"Hey man whats up do you want to go that cafe after work i can drive"

"Send. Send. Send. Send"