I am single, live alone, no kids or pets. I work remote from home. I don't even listen to music with lyrics any more. I use self checkouts, online ordering and tap to pay as much as possible. I wave to my neighbors and the mail man and that's all the interaction we have with each other. I play video games solo or play solo video games now.

As a result of all of this, I have gone full days in a row without using my voice at all and quite frequently. The only time I ever speak is if I place a food order over the phone or a drive thru window. None of this is intentional, it just happens and happens more and more frequently as I get older.

Am I lonely? Not at all. I still communicate with coworkers, friends and family via text, Google Chat or MS Teams. This is all the communication I require with other people nowadays.

I wasn't always like this. I used to be outspoken and an extrovert. I was opionated, a conversationalist and a singer in a band. I had a bunch of friends from high school and college that I hung around with quite a lot. We'd party, converse, the usual. I played a large number of raids in various video games and had a lot of online friends. These activities required voice chat.

However, over the years, people in general just started to piss me off, annoy or disgust me more and more. At some point in the past 10-15 years, Americans have lost humility - their ability to be embarrassed. There is no shame any more. There's no emphasis on doing the right thing for the right reasons. Everyone and everything is just petty, self-serving, ignorant, egocentric, demeaning and hateful. It's rare when I find someone in real life worth conversing with these days, so I don't even bother trying. And it seems no one else is trying either.

I just prefer to not participate in real conversations any more. It's a peaceful existance being an observer and a remote participant in society. I often wonder how many others there are like me. Not that I'd want to meet them, just curious if they're out there.

To answer your question though, life would still go on just fine. We no longer need to talk to each other now that we have so many other alternative forms of communication available to us.

Why is it inevitable, exactly?

I haven’t exactly seen any evidence that human beings talk less today.

Could you rephrase it? I'm slightly confused. Unless they're neurodivergent/mentally ill/Finnish(?), people love to socialize and yapping is a big part of that. Or do you think "eventually" people will just give monosyllabic answers when talked to and barely interact? Why?

Can you imagine the person in your life that always complaining about other people? (We all have at least one).
Do you really think they ever going to shut up?

I've been trending that direction for decades. It makes you want to prune even the necessary conversations and makes you anxious in environments or situations where conversation might occur.

Overalll, I appreciate it although I'm sure it's not for everyone.