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A significant portion of the stories we’ll tell you here are somehow related to other people saying something. Mostly, something scary or disgusting. Well, speech remains the primary element of our communication, despite a recent alarming study showing that people have been speaking fewer words each year since 2005.
According to a study by psychologists from the University of Arizona and the University of Missouri at Kansas City, we’ve spoken an average of 338 fewer words per year since 2005. While that might not seem like a significant figure, it turns out that each year we speak 120K fewer words than the previous year.
What’s the reason for this? Primarily, it’s the proliferation of mobile technology. Now, watching reels on a smartphone is easier than talking to a neighbor, and Google Maps will plot a route in an unfamiliar city far more accurately than a local stranger… Oh, and that’s yet another scary story somehow related to sound.
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Sometimes it’s not the timbre or volume of speech that’s frightening, but actually its content. A terminal diagnosis from a doctor, a dismissal notice from a boss, a confession from a loved one that they truly don’t love you… Sometimes even the simplest silence is far more terrifying than words. And our selection today contains many such stories.
Yes, speaking of silence. It happens that ominous silence, when everyone around you realizes something very bad is happening, that can be the eeriest. That’s why we’re sometimes still afraid of old horror films. When directors didn’t have any special effects at hand, they had to resort to psychological tricks to scare the viewer.
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For context it was a Sikh funeral and they cremate the body immediately after the service. And there is a viewing room with a window for the family to go into to say their final goodbyes.
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And, for example, I will never, as long as I live, forget the quiet, barely heard sobs of an old lady, my classmate’s grandmother, at his funeral right after his first high school final exam. Ironically, I was perhaps the last of his friends to see him alive.
We were walking home from school after our first exam, stopped by my porch, quickly discussed the NBA Finals, which were on at the time, and he moved on. The next morning, it turned out he’d gone into a transformer box a few steps from his house for some reason… His grandma was almost 80, and he was her only grandson.
She’d lived through WWII and seen her share of grief, so she didn’t cry out loud. She just sobbed quietly, and you know, that old woman’s sobbing still gives me the creeps, many, many years later.
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So-called “sounds of nature” are invariably popular among those who want to concentrate on work, but in reality, the sounds of nature are more than just the trickling of water, rustling leaves, and beautiful birdsong. It’s also the predatory growl of a coyote after catching a rabbit, the screams of a cougar in the night, or the howl of a pack of wolves.
It all sounds eerie, even with headphones, in the middle of a busy metropolis, but now imagine being in the middle of nowhere at night, with the only thing separating us from all these “sounds of nature” being the canvas wall of a tent. Well, now we can try to concentrate on work, right?
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However, no description or text can truly replace the stories and tales of netizens. Simply because they share their own experiences, fears, and disturbing sensations, all somehow connected to a particular sound. So now please feel free to read these stories to the very end, and maybe add your own in the comments below!
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