Over the past few months a hypothesis has been slowly taking shape in my mind: The link between the frequency of the word um in speech and fluoridated water supplies. Hear me out. | Poal: Say what you want.

Welcome • User Guide
ToS • Privacy • Canary
Donate • Bugs • License

©2025 Poal.co

647

•

Over the past few months a hypothesis has been slowly taking shape in my mind: The link between the frequency of the word um in speech and fluoridated water supplies. Hear me out.

Recently I've become hyper-aware of how often most people use the word um when they are speaking. Its everywhere, from the talking heads on TV to my coworkers and family. Its so bad in some cases that its actually becoming painful to listen to some people now that I am paying attention to it. Go listen to the news now and see for yourself just how bad it is. Anything that isn't read from a teleprompter will be um every 3 or 4th word. I've counted 15 of them in less then 45 seconds sometimes.

At first I thought it was just that we, collectively, have become very lazy about our speech, and so I resolved to better myself in this area. However, now that I am policing myself and my family on this, I've started to notice a tendency of those that live in big cities to use um much more often then country folk. My knee-jerk response is that it may be related to water fluoridation which could be negatively affecting the speech centers of the brain. I've heard for years that fluoride is a neural toxin and can reduce IQ in developing brains (hence why they fucking load baby water up with it). It would stand to reason that it could also impact the speed at which the brain can process speech, hence the frequent need for a vocal pause.

Of course this hypothesis isn't close bullet proof, since people in the country will still be exposed to fluoride via soda or really anything that is bottled in any major city in the US. On the other hand, those that live in major cities won't just get it in their drinking water, but also when they shower, cook, or wash their cloths etc. They could be getting much more exposure then a country dweller that binges on soda and city bottled water. Maybe it is enough to make a noticeable difference.

Of course I could just be imagining the entire thing, but I wanted to drop the idea and see what poal thinks either way.

Recently I've become hyper-aware of how often most people use the word um when they are speaking. Its everywhere, from the talking heads on TV to my coworkers and family. Its so bad in some cases that its actually becoming painful to listen to some people now that I am paying attention to it. Go listen to the news now and see for yourself just how bad it is. Anything that isn't read from a teleprompter will be um every 3 or 4th word. I've counted 15 of them in less then 45 seconds sometimes. At first I thought it was just that we, collectively, have become very lazy about our speech, and so I resolved to better myself in this area. However, now that I am policing myself and my family on this, I've started to notice a tendency of those that live in big cities to use um much more often then country folk. My knee-jerk response is that it may be related to water fluoridation which could be negatively affecting the speech centers of the brain. I've heard for years that fluoride is a neural toxin and can reduce IQ in developing brains (hence why they fucking load baby water up with it). It would stand to reason that it could also impact the speed at which the brain can process speech, hence the frequent need for a vocal pause. Of course this hypothesis isn't close bullet proof, since people in the country will still be exposed to fluoride via soda or really anything that is bottled in any major city in the US. On the other hand, those that live in major cities won't just get it in their drinking water, but also when they shower, cook, or wash their cloths etc. They could be getting much more exposure then a country dweller that binges on soda and city bottled water. Maybe it is enough to make a noticeable difference. Of course I could just be imagining the entire thing, but I wanted to drop the idea and see what poal thinks either way.

(post is archived)

[–] • 0 pt

Um, you, um maybe, um, onto something

link

[–] • 0 pt

Interesting hypothesis but you will need to make the link between the flouride and the number of ums. There is probably a record of the flouridation levels in the water for different states which you could then use to count the ums per minute from people who live there.

I am also against umming and a new development, the dreaded lip smacking, that seems to accompany the ums.

My hypothesis is that people um to prevent anyone else from interjecting during a pause in there speech string. Look at the French who deploy long drawn out 'uuuggghhhhs' in between words. I read this was because french is a relatively new language with only about a quarter as many words as english so they do this to bridge the gap while they cast for the appropriate word.

It might also be the case that your observation of city dwellers deploying the um more frequently could be because of the struggle to maximize opportunities to be heard in a more densly populated and more competitive audio environment.

Regardless of that your hypothesis seems testable if there is a flourudation level record and I am sure there are plenty of people who are against flouridation that would welcome your findings.

link

[–] • 0 pt

It sounds like to me. (Skip to 0:40)

link

/s/Whatever

created ago

Use for NSFW stuff

Use for memes

For political stuff check sidebar

___

This sub is for things that generally don't have another sub. Or you do not know about the appropriate sub.

If in a single day you post more than 5 things on the same subject in this sub they may be moved to another appropriate sub, so that interested people can more easily follow the topic.

Thank you

Sincerely Boobs.