You Were Born to Speak

Communicating means entering into relationships with others, and this cannot be done only by using words. There are many facts to support this statement: it has been demonstrated, for example, that spending an excessive amount of time isolated behind our screens has a negative impact on our communication skills. People who work remotely are not the only ones who are affected by this problem: this negative effect has also been observed in children who watch too much television and do not spend enough time talking with adults and their peers, as they end up struggling to express themselves correctly.

The fight for survival forced our ancestors to learn to communicate effectively. Tribes that gathered around a bonfire listened to stories about how their fellow tribesman won battles against a sabre-toothed tiger. By listening to these stories, they were able to learn tactics that could save them when they went out to hunt, and as stories were passed on, so the human species learned many tips and tricks that they needed to survive.

Yuval Noah Harari, in his book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, explains that a lone chimpanzee is more likely to survive on a desert island than a single human, while a group of humans can thrive where a family of apes would perish and die. Human beings, in fact, possess a unique quality, in that they know how to work together in large numbers by communicating effectively. Chimpanzees can work together, but only in groups of up to twenty individuals, and only if they “know” each other. Bees can also work together in large numbers, but their communication techniques are not adaptable, and they are unable to react effectively to pattern changes. Humans are instinctively flexible, and this trait helps them overcome any problems that might get in the way of them working together.