How loudly should we think?

I talk to myself all the time. Not too loudly, but it would definitely be noticeable in a public space (which is why I try really hard not to do it at the grocery store). The worst, for me, is when I’m thinking silently about something funny, and then end up laughing out loud. When you’re sitting alone on a bus, and you do that… people tend to edge away from you. :p

ditto @augustlan :p

I will never forget the day in jr high when two girls entered the bathroom as I was washing my hands and they giggled and whispered to each other “she’s talking to herself”. :(

I was an extremely shy girl and I guess I muttered under my breath now and then. I don’t see anything wrong with it, but I guess some teenage girls do. those bitches~

I talk to myself too. Not unusual to have someone look over at me while I am driving and realise I am muttering away to myself.

I also like to think out loud by talking out ideas with others. The discussion is part of my thought process. Bit like writing a first draft of an essay that is really part of the brainstorming phase. I will be evaluating and analysing as the discussion progresses.

Why should there be a correct standard of how one must think? Uniformism?

Have you ever gotten high? Off some good California Pot? Thoughts get really loud. That’s how loud we should be :)

Hadn’t really thought about this until recently ET. In the past couple of days, a few people have blatantly asked me “Who are you talking to”?

From your question, I take that to mean that I may be talking out loud a bit more or a bit louder than I used to. As my physical hearing begins to fade, perhaps my mental hearing does as well?

But if pressed to answer the “who” part, I don’t really know. I can’t say if I’m talking to myself outloud… thinking, as you say, or if I’m talking to make believe friends in my mind. I don’t believe that would be thinking, as much as conversing.

I can remember talking to problem people in my head. Broken relationships, children with bad report cards, the lady at the return counter before I ever returned the item… As if to prepare my words in advance of actually seeing them in person. Thinking it out beforehand, out loud I guess. But I don’t recall doing that in any recent time. I don’t feel the need to prepare a statement as much as I used to.

Great question.

@augustlan & @babybadger That’s a pretty close approximation of me as well. I’m certainly more openly vocal with my thoughts than I used to be. Perhaps getting older has dulled my concern about what others think of my sanity. If laughing out loud when you think of a funny thought is nuts, then brand me from Planters.

@jonsblond Bitches indeed, and here’s betting you were completely quiet and innocent and they just trum[ed up the charges hoping to embarrass you. At least that’s my story, and I’ll testify on your behalf.

@Bellatrix Exactly. Thanks.

@whitetigress I have done that, adn yes, I think that gives us an excellent measure of what’s acceptable versus what’s lunatic loud. :-)

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies I get it from my wife when news storys or political reporting rankles me. I’m really talking to her, not the TV> I’m trying to give her my take on what we are both watching. But it is still utterly insane of me, because I know full well she is no more interested in what I am thinking about the news or politics than our nightstand is.

For me, when I actually do talk out loud while thinking—often when alone—it is definitely verbalized thought.

My ex used to have long, drawn out arguments with himself, with him taking both roles. It got to the point where it was really weird and he would forget whether the argument took place in real life or in his own world. That simply went too far beyond ‘normal mutterings and self-talking.’ He accused me of saying things that were from his mental battles—strrrange.

I sing under my breath all the time—as long as nobody’s around (that’s not something for anyone to hear…) I briefly talk to animals and sometimes objects, like my car, “Let’s get us to work on time…” and do talk to myself inside my head while trying to figure things out, but I don’t say anything much beyond a mutter, only my expression changes. I prefer to find myself singing though :)

Is it just me or do you find your lips are silently moving while you have little head conversations with yourself? Then you turn around and see someone watching you and feel very self-conscious?

@linguaphile I have to agree. That either borders on a pathological mental state, or is right on over the line and in there.

@Bellatrix In my book, singing doesn’t even count. If you can’t express the song that’s in your heart or hum a tune, that’s not a world I want to live in. Does anyone even think that what Julie Andrews was depicting in ’‘The Hils are Alive’’ wasn’t meant to be understood as a heartfelt song sung at the top of her lungs while alone on a mountain vale? Remember the opening scene of her alone in a grassland below the Alps?

Singing? Have I been singing and not noticed… it is possible!

@Bellatrix I don’t move my lips unless I’m actually talking out loud, but one of my daughters does it when she’s singing in her head (and used to do it while reading silently, too). Cute!

I do it when I am having a conversation in my head sometimes… I do it quite a lot. So, I can relate to your daughter. Not when I’m singing but perhaps I have an important conversation coming up. I might play it out in my head and I will be speaking silently.

I do play possible conversations in my head to work out my anxiety about upcoming conversations/situations and it does help alleviate the stress, but… the conversation never happens the way it does in my head!

I don’t move my lips when I work out those conversations, but I know my expression changes slightly- as my face would when involved in an actual conversation (i.e. raised eyebrows, cocked head, etc). I happens while typing too!

I wonder if my facial expressions changing/moving are more inherent to me because my primary language depends more on facial expressions than lip movements?

@linguaphile Ooh, I do that while typing, too! Every now and again, someone will ask me what I’m smiling about, or what that silly expression on my face is all about.

@augustlan Oops! You just made me grin!! Nobody around, so I’m safe! XD

@augustlan I took a speed reading course, and the very first thing they taught us is to not say the words out loud ir mouth them. Next, the taught us to turn off the internal dialog and just let your eyes scan line after line as quickly as they can. You will actually test higher on comprehension. They proved it. But reading isn’t nearly as much fun. So I went back to the internal dialog mode. But the steps in the course prove that mouthing the words isn’t at all uncommon.

@Bellatrix My big nemesis is programming. I don’t think I could step through a complex set of interacting conditional statements without talking out loud about If this, then that, elase those, but if this AND this, then the-other…

Makes a lot of sense to me @ET. If I am reading a really complex passage in a book (or a student’s essay!) sometimes reading it out loud helps me make sense of the main point. So, I can see how that would work with something like programming too.