Australians spoke an average of 338 fewer words each day between 2005 and 2019, a decline that an oral historian says may mean people are losing the ability to listen. AI tools and chatbots promise quick replies and so-called “empathetic” listening. But listening to different views and entering other people’s worlds, the historian warns, is part of what makes us human. The bargain is speed. The cost may be fewer conversations with people whose lives are unlike our own.
The decline amounted to “a staggering loss of 120,000 spoken words per person, compared with the year before,” the writer said. Those figures describe less speech, not merely a new way of packaging it. A chatbot’s promise of empathy also sits uneasily beside the human work the writer describes: staying with someone’s account without demanding instant gratification or artificial agreement.
What the Archive Holds
From 2018 to early 2024, the writer led a team at the National Library of Australia responsible for what the piece calls the largest oral history collection in the southern hemisphere. The collection dates to 1957 and holds more than 58,000 hours of recordings. Much of it is available online through Trove, including First Nations Australians discussing deep history and sharing firsthand memories that reach back into the 19th century.
The writer has listened to thousands of Australians across eras, places and backgrounds. Dame Mary Gilmore, born in 1865, spoke about tallow candles and life before electricity. An Australian prime minister recalled being elected after their party spent 23 years in opposition. A mother described seeking refuge in Australia after crossing pirate-infested seas following the Vietnam war. A pioneer stationed in Antarctica reflected on distance.
The next voice might belong to Dr Ella Stack, a Darwin doctor who survived Cyclone Tracy, stayed to help, recorded survivors’ memories and later ensured Darwin was rebuilt as mayor. These aren't interchangeable snippets. The collection preserves people speaking in their own voices about what they lived through.
Who Gets Heard
The recordings preserve past Australian accents, words no longer spoken and accounts of professions that no longer exist. They also include memories of the 1891 Queensland shearers’ strikes, the conscription debates of the first world war and testimonies from First Nations Australians who were part of the Stolen Generations. The archive puts accounts of conflict, state decisions and everyday life side by side, rather than reducing them to a quick response.
The writer said listening across different backgrounds and perspectives can improve mental and physical wellbeing, foster information exchange, grow understanding, spark ideas and build empathy. “Empathy is the richest gift listening offers,” the writer said. “That will be our greatest loss if we speak and hear less.”
Listening, the writer argued, lets people engage with others’ experiences without demanding instant gratification or manufactured agreement. It can make people more patient, help them appreciate difference and let them disagree without needless destruction. That kind of exchange takes time. It can't come simply from promising a faster answer.
A Voice Beyond the Present
The writer recalled sometimes crying with laughter at the collection’s humorous memories. Stories hold joy as well as hardship, and people separated by a century or more can still connect through love, loss, change, challenge, joy and resilience. “These voices from the past can resonate as powerfully as ever in our present,” the writer said.
The archive offers recorded voices, not a replacement for listening to people now. AI tools sell speed and “empathetic” responses, but the historian’s account points to what becomes harder to hear as conversation shrinks: disagreement, unfamiliar lives and the full, unhurried story.