Audionote

Because I am rubbish at replying to whatsapp messages, I recently tried using the audionote function on whatsapp to carry on conversations. So instead of tedious typing, I find a quite spot, and just rattle on and send it.

It was supposed to help me speed up my replies. It hasn't.

What it has done is made me realise how different hearing some one's voice is. It shapes a person more - you can here what they really laugh at (in text messages, a 'haha' is often just a connector or even a relief-of-awkwardness tool) where their speech speeds up or slows down. You can hear them move around or walk or try to stifle a cough. It's an entirely different way of communicating which I like more because, well (lit nerd but) auditory imagery is so powerful.

Voices are often such a big deal for me - I remember how I used to fall asleep to the sound of my Mum reading books (The hobbit, The little white horse, Twist of Gold...), how I once recorded a shop assistant in a fishing shop in Avimore because his deep Scottish voice was just so riveting, and how (embarrassingly but.) I've always wanted to marry someone with a bass voice.

Apparently smell is our sense most closely associated with memory, but I would argue that sound comes in a close second.