75% of American Adults Say They Can’t Understand What People Say with a Mask On

The mask necessarily muffles speech, and makes it impossible to understand anyone clearly. You can sometimes pick up on the general gist, at best. It’s like listening to a language that you’re trying to learn, but don’t have a full grasp on. You just get bits and pieces.

Study Finds:

Many Americans probably feel like they’ve been living on a deserted island for the past year. According to a new survey, most adults think all this isolation and the complications of wearing masks is affecting their ability to communicate with others. Along with conversations going dry, many Americans are missing the sounds common in the pre-pandemic world.

Put together by Eargo in celebration of World Hearing Day, the survey asked Americans about the state of post-pandemic conversations. Three in five people (62%) say the pandemic has put the “art of conversation” in serious decline.

A big part of the problem appears to be face masks. Three-quarters believe they just can’t understand what anyone is saying with a mask on. Additionally, 57 percent believe it is significantly harder to have an engaging, rewarding conversation over the phone or through video chat.

With all of this in mind, it isn’t surprising that just under seven in 10 Americans feel like they’re woefully “out of touch” these days.

“By this point in the pandemic, we all know what it feels like to be on a Zoom call or FaceTime chat that just isn’t giving us that sense of connection we would have in-person, and how taxing that can be, but for older Americans and those with hearing loss, it can be even more of a strain,” an Eargo spokesperson says in a statement.

Perhaps even more so than dramatic discussions or debates, many Americans just want to kick back and converse with their friends. Over 70 percent say they are most looking forward to chatting up friends and family in-person once the pandemic is over. However, an overwhelming 85 percent add they have no interest in talking politics moving forward.

Who are the 25% who can understand what people are saying with a mask on?

Do they have ultrasonic hearing, like a bat?

They must be people who are ideologically committed to masks. They would think it was wrong to say: “no, I can’t really understand what people are saying.”

The ideology is just “authority.”

It’s a cult.

The masks are designed to separate us from each other and to create fear and paranoia.