Unsure if the flair is correct. The title pretty much says it all, in the best way I could think to word it.
In: 17
I’d say it’s kind of like reading, when we’re taught to read they point at the word and say it aloud, as we first start reading we do the same thing, then we learn that pointing at the word is unnecessary and stop doing it, then we start to learn that we shouldn’t always say everything out loud so people start whispering or mouthing the words and then (most people) move on to just reading without doing anything with the mouth, but still playing imaginary audio of the word being read aloud in the mind because the sound of the word was so ingrained in the reading process up to that point.
but some people go an extra step, at some point they realize (consciously or not) that the audio of the word is totally unnecessary to understand the word and don’t need to play it or wait for it to finish before moving on to the next word, allowing them to read silently much faster than reading aloud.
when we’re young we’re encouraged to communicate as much as possible, then as we get a little older we become kids with no filter whatsoever just saying literally everything we think, then we start to learn that we shouldn’t do that, but the mind is still anticipating having to communicate our thoughts to others and is translating them into words even if we may never end up actually saying them.
and like with the reading people can work out that it’s unnecessary and stop doing it, allowing them to process things a bit faster, out of the people I know that I’ve asked whether or not they have an ‘inner monologue’ all the people that said they didn’t have one (myself included) were introverts who don’t talk much, but we all remembered having it when we were younger.
Personally I only have audible thoughts when I’m actively writing or typing something or planning out how to say something to someone, otherwise it’s just instant thought
I’m not a psychologist or anything, this is just what I assume is going on from personal experience and reading stuff online and talking about it with other people
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