My sister said I talk differently now. Less warmth, she said, which I didn't take well at first because I thought she was wrong. But I've been listening to myself since then and I think she might be right. I speak in shorter runs. Fewer detours. I get to the point and stop, and the stops are clean, and the whole thing is efficient and slightly cold. I've been talking to voice interfaces and typing messages and doing calls where I keep strictly to the purpose, and somewhere in there the wandering casual way I used to talk to people just got quietly trimmed.

I used to meander. I used to start a sentence not knowing where it was going and find out at the end. I liked that. I think that version of me was more honest, less edited, more actually there. Now I send the compressed version and call it communication. My sister wants me back and I don't know how to explain that I didn't go anywhere, I just got smaller. Have you noticed your voice changing? Not how it sounds - how it feels to use it?