system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why does talking on the phone become difficult if you hear the feedback of your own voice due to connection issues?

I work in IT, and I spend a lot of time on the phone.  Every once in a while, people will have phone issues and as I talk to them, even though they can hear me and I can hear them, I will hear the almost immediate feedback of my voice saying everything I just said.  At least for me, it makes it very confusing and difficult for me to keep the conversation going coherently because I have to really think about what I'm saying and there tends to be a lot of pauses as I speak.  Is this a common phenomenon, and why does it happen?
gpt
Speech utilizes a feedback loop. You don't just think of a sentence and your mouth automatically says it from vocal memory. Your brain is constantly monitoring the sound of your voice in real time to keep it sounding like you want it to. Sort of like walking across a tightrope. You don't have a memorized sequence of movements needed to cross. Your mind is constantly analyzing your balance and correcting itself. This is why deaf people have difficulty speaking clearly. When you have your voice played back with a delay, your brain confuses what you're actually saying and what is being played back so that it "corrects" itself based off the delayed sound which then causes the strange sounding speech. So it's kind of like if you are walking the tightrope but your sense of balance is one second behind. You're gonna fall off because you need real time feedback.