I Am Not Your Manic Pixel Dream Girl

[Ivanova Shostakovich]

   I like to think I use the same voice all the time and that I don't tailor it differently for different people or situations. Maybe I'm wrong. I've never really thought about it actually. Certainly I don't feel I consciously try project a different person at different times. That seems like too much work. I sometimes feel I lack the ability to really see myself, to objectively describe myself.

   I believe there is a distinction between the voice used for just talking to people about whatever, the weather, favorite Pringle, stars; and the voice used for describing non-verbal action, reaction, emotion etc... That second one isn't something I share with everyone. So, in a way, I suppose it could be considered a different voice. But as I get to know someone, and likewise as they get to know me, that distinction breaks down and blurs until there is only one voice.

[Coby Foden]

I pretty much use the same style anywhere; forums, inworld chat and IMs. Sure while chatting inworld typos might happen more often than here, but the general style is still the same. Capital letters where they belong to, punctuation, full sentences.

My friend once commented "Oh, you're so correct! Even after single word reply you put there a full stop". So I dropped that one.

[Love Zhaoying]

23 minutes ago, Coby Foden said:

Even after single word reply you put there a full stop

You reminded me of how Victor Borge would use phonetic punctuation. ?

[Madelaine McMasters]

11 hours ago, Dillon Levenque said:

PPS: I begged Maddy to send me a TP but she ignored me. It was awful ;-).

I am awful, and I'm keeping you for myself.

;-).

[Snugs McMasters]

11 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Yeah, she can be like that, can't she? Next time, go over her head and message Snugs.

I had a chat with her. She promises not to make the same mistake again. If she sees both of you online, she'll strive to make the connection.

[KanryDrago]

18 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

It's a little odd that LL has never introduced features like emoji or gifs, stickers, and embedded video into in-world IMs. That could make for wild conversation. But maybe they want it to replicate real world conversations?

 

Please no Lindens don't look at this and think its a good idea, gestures are bad enough without giving idiots even more ways to annoy

[Love Zhaoying]

4 minutes ago, KanryDrago said:

Please no Lindens don't look at this and think its a good idea, gestures are bad enough without giving idiots even more ways to annoy

People spam with “text pictures” still.

[KanryDrago]

9 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

People spam with “text pictures” still.

Yes but not a reason to give them even more tools to annoy us with

[KanryDrago]

As to the op, I speak in two voices certainly

One is my forum voice which tends to be quite aggressive

The other is my in world voice where I tend to be a much more laid back individual I think though I guess I should ask the forum members that I have talked to in world if that is true

[Ceka Cianci]

The only time I really think of how I am coming off to someone is when I'm trying to help them figure something out..Especially with new people to the world..I try to be clear and explain things to where they are easy as possible to understand..

As far as everyday in world and out communication..They are pretty much controlled by the same things as always,mood and awareness..

I don't really RP  in either..

I find the older I get the shorter my words have gotten..I used to talk peoples ears off in RL and type long page posts in the forums..Not so much anymore..

 

Dave Chappelle once said in one of his shows.. There is my every day voice and then there is my Job interview voice..

To save time I just combined them as much as possible.. life is too short..

I giggle all the time..Always have and always will I guess..It's just a habit..

hehehehe

 

 

[Madelaine McMasters]

46 minutes ago, Ceka Cianci said:

I giggle all the time..Always have and always will I guess..It's just a habit..

hehehehe

You forgot to \o/

You're not Ceka without your \o/

[Ceka Cianci]

Just now, Madelaine McMasters said:

You forgot to \o/

You're not Ceka without your \o/

hehehehe \o/

[Scylla Rhiadra]

10 hours ago, Gabriele Graves said:

Definitely different internal voices for different moods, contexts, subjects, etc.

I'm going to venture a guess that we all do that, to some degree. Maybe we sort of "hear" ourselves speaking in our heads as we text?

10 hours ago, Gabriele Graves said:

I am never sure how the things I say are perceived or what impression they give though.

Yeah, and that's the question. Part of the problem is that we also don't have complete control over how they are perceived by others, right? Part of it is our skill in imparting emotion, mood, and personality -- but any communication is a two-way street. So, we need our "auditors" to also be "good readers."

 

10 hours ago, Gabriele Graves said:

However I don't really care that much either as I post for myself more than for any other.

Now, that's interesting! I don't think there is anything wrong with that (and I do lots of "social" things for myself), but why speak publicly if you don't care who hears, or what they think of it?

[Love Zhaoying]

1 minute ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

I’m going to venture a guess that we all do that, to some degree. Maybe we sort of "hear" ourselves speaking in our heads as we text?

The voice in my head is sexy as sin, so I’m lucky.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

10 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

The voice in my head is sexy as sin, so I’m lucky.

Particularly if turning yourself on is your main objective?

[Bree Giffen]

My real time chat in SL is much more informal compared to composing a forum post. The people I meet are usually informal as well. 

[Love Zhaoying]

2 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Particularly if turning yourself on is your main objective?

Mayyyybe...

 

[Scylla Rhiadra]

8 hours ago, Maryanne Solo said:

All I know is that those who know me, (both geminis ^^), understand that if I make even one typo, that means I am emotionally, & mentally exhausted.

This reminds -- as I had forgotten -- of a few instances in the long-ago past in-world where I found myself particularly emotionally overwrought. And I seem to recall (although maybe this is just my highly coloured memory) my typing -- and my language -- just kind of falling apart.

Ugh. Not good times.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

1 minute ago, Bree Giffen said:

My real time chat in SL is much more informal compared to composing a forum post. The people I meet are usually informal as well. 

That, I guess, is true probably of most of us. Most of the time, anyway?

Does that mean that "Bree" here is different than "Bree" in-world, in some way? (I don't think I've ever met you in-world.)

[Lindal Kidd]

I don't have much to say about "voices", but I will say that the very best thing about this thread was Scylla's reply to Maddy...and Maddy, I agree with everything Scyll said...she just said it better, and first.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

8 hours ago, Ivanova Shostakovich said:

I sometimes feel I lack the ability to really see myself, to objectively describe myself.

Yes! And even if we do "see ourselves," we may be deluding ourselves by reading our intention, or what we know to be an underlying emotion, or intention, or truth about ourselves, in what we are saying and how we are saying. We are really, even the most self-aware of us, trapped in our own subjectivity (as Maddy more or less said above).

 

8 hours ago, Ivanova Shostakovich said:

But as I get to know someone, and likewise as they get to know me, that distinction breaks down and blurs until there is only one voice.

So, sort of "public" and "private."

Probably true of me, but with variations within those two categories.

[Maitimo]

22 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

• How do you use text to establish your personality and/or authority?
   
• How many different "voices" do you have? What are the contexts in which you use them?
   
• Are you consciously using a voice that projects a different version of yourself than you think represents your RL self?
   
• Obviously, if you're doing RP, you're employing a different voice. But do you think there is a relationship between how you speak OC, and the way in which you formulate speech in RP?

 

I don't think I do this consciously at all, or even subconsciously. I type the way I think and speak in RL I think the only difference is that in text (in any context, not just in SL) I am far less likely to swear than I am in RL. Then again when I'm in SL I am less likely to be talking about things that make me want to. 

I have only one voice. RL or SL. I've never had the opportunity to try roleplay in SL (not much going on for my timezone) so there's no IC/OOC for me. My original appearance was based on a RP character from outside of SL but aside from that, I'm just me, all the time. I may wear widely different avatars from furries to faeries, angels, demons etc. But I don't see that as taking on a different character or personality, and my "voice" doesn't change according to what "costume" I'm wearing.

[Rolig Loon]

I'm late to the party, but I find the question intriguing.  At times, I am very conscious of my voice (or voices) in SL.  I spent my pre-retirement life as an educator, so I always sound "academic" to myself here in the forums -- long, complex sentences, 25 cent words, heavy punctuation, and lots of qualifiers.  When I think about that voice, I worry that it comes off as pedantic or perhaps more authoritative than I really am in my own head.  The effect is muddied by the fact that I never learned to type, so I make enough typos to take the edge off my classroom persona. With or without typos, though, my forum voice is close to my RL voice.

When I'm in chat in world, I don't usually bother to back up and correct my typos, and I tend to spit out shorter sentences, or phrases.  I'll even use abbreviations and short interjections in a hurry (LOL, Heh, Har Har), but from a really small palette.  I'm not changing voice consciously.  I'm just in too much of a hurry to get a thought out, so I don't take the time for measured language.  I guess I'm also conscious of being more outgoing in SL than I am in RL, where I am more introverted and hesitant about jumping into a conversation.  That difference has puzzled me for almost 12 years now. Regardless of why I shift voice in world, though, I notice that one result is that I become much more colloquial than the RL voice in my head is.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

11 hours ago, KanryDrago said:

Please no Lindens don't look at this and think its a good idea, gestures are bad enough without giving idiots even more ways to annoy

I think I agree. I'm not really big on gifs and so forth myself. But I suppose if they were in private IMs only, and not in public chat, it would be tolerable. 

I do sort of wish there were a way to format chat more precisely than emote, shouts, or whispers though. It might make it a bit more expressive.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

9 hours ago, Ceka Cianci said:

I giggle all the time..Always have and always will I guess..It's just a habit..

Ceka, honestly, you have (for me) one of the most expressive and distinctive voices here. It's one I've had a long time to get to know, and one that always makes me smile. And part of that is most definitely your "heheheh"s. 

Whatever you're doing, it works. ?