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From:
Date: 10/18/03
Time: 12:04:28 AM
Remote Name: 132.234.9.80
Hi Mandy
Great question! Let’s assume there’s a completely efficient Speech Easy device. Yes, I think the emotional baggage would resolve. After all, there would no longer be anything to be afraid of.
It would probably take time — time to have lots of good, fluent experiences, and to learn to really trust the thing. But I’m sure the fear would pass. We mesh very easily with our technologies, which come as second nature to us —think of glasses, or contact lenses. They become a part of us. I’m sure that a really efficient Speech Easy would become second nature as well, and that the fear would resolve.
What’s nice about your question is that it makes us ask what would happen if the fear DIDN’T resolve. That would be very interesting. I suppose it would reveal a genuine neurosis on the part of the speaker. Some people are neurotic about things like … their ears being too big. They are totally obsessed with the belief that their ears are too big (even though their ears are perfectly normal). If someone was still fearful, even when they had a SE device, this might reveal a similar sort of neurosis — that there is something wrong with their speech. But my guess is that this kind of reaction would be rare.
Your question relates to the question of confidence. You might like to have a look at my reply to Katrina, just a couple of threads back. The direct URL is:
http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/cahn_mnsu_edu/6dartnall/_disc31/0000004d.htm
Terry