Microphones have constantly been used in conjunction with other technologies all throughout important historical events. Microphones alongside "reverse-microphones", aka speakers, have revolutionized the scope and process of disseminating information to audiences. Admittedly, listening to someone speak lowers comprehension rates when compared to reading. People are easily distracted when listening to people give information partly because their rate of thinking is higher than the other person's rate of speaking and partly due to other factors. However, many famous speeches are famous due to their ability to draw on emotion. In a type of listening called 'empathetic listening' one of the goals is for the listener to relate to the speaker emotionally [17]. Though speeches that are informationally dense are tough to follow at times, the mood and emotion can easily be picked up on. This can make a speech that relies on emotion and human experience very powerful. Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington D.C. would not be near as famous if it didn't connect with people on a personal level. Reading the speech allows someone to appreciate the poetic nature of the speech. Listening to that speech though, allows the listener to hear the confidence, hope, and at times sadness in his voice that conveys the seriousness of what he is trying to say.
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The microphone is just an object though. Many great people have used this technology to spread ideas of peace, however, people can also use microphones for other purposes too. People use microphones for propaganda and hate speech also [18]. The use of a microphone, recording technology, and speakers ensures the possibility that anyone can influence a large audience if they have anything compelling to say, be it good or bad.
Speaking isn't necessarily the most effective way to communicate information compared to writing. The question then arises, "Why have microphones gained so much popularity?". First off, as previously stated, the human voice evokes emotion in us; take listening to music for example. The ability to record music using microphones has revolutionized the music industry. Secondly, when used in conjunction with video recording, microphones offer the ability to replicate a large part of the way humans perceive the world. There's a great reason why there was a push to better synchronize video with audio back during the genesis of film making and that's because sound is such an integral part of our daily lives. Being able to listen to sounds recorded by microphones lets us lose ourselves like we do when we read a great book, possibly why there is such a large trend in audio books nowadays [19]. In the end it's hard to say where we will see the microphone centuries from now but it's rather easy to say we will at least be able to find them.