Aishwarya Week 8: Echoes of the Use of Voice Memos
Photo by Leif Johnson.
Since childhood, I always imagined having my own virtual space where I could express myself using the American language. Instead of capturing my day-to-day life through visual content on a YouTube channel, I engaged in a different form of linguistic expression — Voice Memos. This shift from a visual to an auditory platform allowed me to explore language during the years 2016 to 2022.
Initially, I recorded interviews with my family about their favorite cultural dishes and as I listened back, I observed my tone transform over the years. In 2016, my voice seemed less fluid and more brittle, reflecting an ongoing development of the English language. Over the years, my voice became more clearer and articulate. This illuminates the effect of the everyday exposure we have to the English language — from books to TV shows — that helps our voices grow so we can communicate with others in America.
As I delved into the recordings, I found a diverse range of titles — from “Family Interviews” and “Flute Performances” to “School Projects.” Each title represented a journey of interest using language. The performances of playing flute showcase a language of music that can be used to communicate and engage an audience of people who enjoy the sounds of notes ascending and descending gracefully. The recordings of interviews with my family also showcase a way of interacting with them using language.
But, the most significant factor I noticed was the change in the content of these recordings as the years progressed. The transition from exploring and fostering curiosity with family and music before the pandemic to titles related to school projects revealed the impact the pandemic had on daily life and language in America.
Every day from the years 2016 to 2019, I was engaged in memorable activities where I would imagine myself grabbing the attention of “viewers” by describing what I do while spending time with my family by using language to communicate with them. I find that Voice Memos is what preserves this language so we can reflect on how language can gradually evolve from the influences in society.
However, after the pandemic and until now, language has more or so evolved through texting on social media or through focusing on academic projects to shape linguistic capabilities. But uniquely, platforms like Voice Memos showcase how language plays a pivotal role in creating an album of my linguistic journey by capturing the transformative impact of the pandemic.
Hello Aishwarya! The way you introduced voice memos as a key part of your childhood that expresses linguistic identity sounds incredibly similar to my experiences with the language ever since I had the faintest idea of expressing myself with descriptive language. I now recall the various evenings when I would gather my family together to talk about our day. However, there is a slight difference between your self-expression through language and my own.
ReplyDeleteTo elaborate, at home, I speak Tamil with my family. I have not had the chance to utilize the English language in familiar conversations frequently in my household. Although you engaged in familiar conversation with your family in English and I did the same in Tamil, there are similarities between the methods of linguistic interaction. As you mentioned, I notice that my linguistic tone has gained a sense of flow that is reflected by my usage of more complex vocabulary and sentence structure.
Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has been a game changer in the development of linguistic identity for many individuals. The pandemic has often been considered as the point of incredible change between separating the academic workplace from the home. Throughout the pandemic, I have encountered difficulty in managing my time and my work time as separate entities. I allocated an excessive amount of my time to entertainment, which created a learning loss during the pandemic. This learning loss was also supplemented by the lack of social interaction that characterized this time, ruining many individuals’ processes of social development.
Hi Aishwarya! This was a very interesting and different to all the other blogs you written before. It is very wholesome how voice memos was an crucial part of your childhood and I relate heavily to it. There are many voice memos I took of myself on my mother's phone which is very enjoyable to look back on and laugh. It also makes me reflect on how much I changed when it comes to tone of voice of the difference in how I spoke. The mention of the range of titles you used adds more details to your blog and your own personal voice. It was very interesting how you mentioned the impact COVID-19 had on our lives. I did not think about the impact the virus had on our linguistic identity which I found really interesting. Overall, your blog is very interesting. Good job!
ReplyDeleteHi Aishwarya! Your blog was so relatable and brought back so many memories. Your observation of how your voice changed over time to be smoother and less brittle matches my observations of my own voice and the voices of others that I’ve known for a long time as well. I also relate to recording random things on Voice Memos. I also used that app to create many school related recordings, predominantly for Chinese schools. It makes sense that many of your titles became school project related considering that more and more assignments began to be done online. I also like how you addressed that the pandemic triggered many changes in society. It’s amazing that even apps like Voice Memos reflect that change.
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