By Jack Pemment

Should we even be sharing our voices with voice activated assistants?

The thought of using my voice to request certain functions through such assistants as Alexa, Siri, or Google Assistant has always struck me as weird and a bit awkward. I am not talking to them, after all, I am activating them. For somebody who is neurodivergent and introverted, the need to use my voice in an additional context is aggravating, not in the least because the differences between talking and activating will wreak havoc on what I feel I am supposed to do or how I am supposed to interpret responses.

The voice is precious and easily taken for granted. Toddlers begin to use it to receive the attention of parents and caregivers; a heart-melting and profound moment for all involved. The voice is an expression of yourself that others become familiar with and learn to associate your sound with your personality and presence. The voices of those we are attracted to can turn us into a nervous wreck or melt us like butter. When a familiar and cherished voice has been absent for long enough, we start to yearn to hear it again.

There is a complex neurobiology behind using the voice. Much of our parietal lobes are involved with interpreting sounds and gaining meaning so that we can then go on to express ourselves within these contexts using other language centers like Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas. Conversation and the use of the voice strikes deep into who we are and what we think, and so when we do use it the potential for connection and relationships with others increases exponentially.

However, given the neurobiological complexity, using one’s voice can take its toll on one’s energy levels. Some conversations can be exhausting and sometimes after extensive voice use, there is the desire for an extended period of solitude. This might explain why many prefer a texting conversation rather than actual talking because there is greater control over energy expenditure. Sometimes people do not want to have to summon the strength for voice use, especially when they are in the home and wish to relax.

When we use our voice we automatically make assumptions about who might be listening and use them to guide which words we choose and how we deliver them. Voice activated assistants do not have minds or personalities, and so some of the work your brain starts to do in anticipation of talking is wasted and unnecessary. The use of the voice with a voice activated assistant, can therefore feel like recruiting a surgeon to apply a band aid.

Using the voice as a switch feels like cheapening ourselves.

The voice has energy requirements and so it is a limited, and therefore precious resource. The voice activated assistants do not care about you and are only concerned with listening, keeping a record of the functions you request, and providing you with information that will take more of your money or more of your time, and you have to use an integral part of yourself to get any use out of it.

I, personally, am yet to be convinced that voice activated assistants are worthy of our voices. If we need noise to do things for us, clapper technology is fine.

Jack Pemment came into neuroscience after studying theories of culture, particularly memes and memetics. This started his love affair with how “brain food” can have an impact on human behavior, and after graduating, he moved with his wife to Oxford, MS, to study neurobiological explanations of reactive and instrumental aggression at the University of Mississippi. You can read more of his writing on his blog named Blame the Amygdala.