Voice or Text?

[Amina Sopwith]

14 minutes ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

In RL, the people I meet are 90% them.

In SL, the people I meet are 90% me.

That is a fantastic, succinct way of putting it. To quote Anais Nin: "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are."

I was also reminded at one point, when very immersed in SL, of the Mirror of Erised in Harry Potter. For those who aren't familiar, it's a mirror that shows not what or who you are, but what or who you most deeply, desperately long to be. And the headmaster sends it away in the end because it's damaging (Harry becomes obsessed with sitting in front of it for as long as he can every night, as it shows him happy with his parents, who in reality were murdered when he was a baby). As Dumbledore says: "This mirror will give us neither knowledge nor truth. Men have wasted away before it, entranced by what they have seen, or been driven mad, not knowing if what it shows is real or even possible. The Mirror will be moved to a new home tomorrow, Harry, and I ask you not to go looking for it again. If you ever do run across it, you will now be prepared. It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that."

I know that all sounds very morose and as if I'm denigrating SL overall. I really don't mean to; I was immersed in it for several years at one point and I'm sporadically back again now. It's a wonderful place of creativity and interaction, it found me a love I'll always cherish and of course, for a lot of people, it's a way to experience and explore things that simply are not possible in RL. I love it and I'm glad it exists.

I just think that it's very important to understand what it is and how it works, and what it can and can't offer us. Back in the day, I definitely saw a lot of people dwelling on dreams and forgetting to live, and I could very much see how it happened. 
 

[Jameson2001]

  Me using voice in SL

  Me using text in SL😁  Nuff said D'Oh

[Love Zhaoying]

2 hours ago, Selene Gregoire said:

Text me baby!

Oh wait.

I don't have a cell phone. Oops. 

*whispering* This here thing has a DM feature!

[Ambie Cloud]

I prefer text as I can reply in my own time, and I feel way more chilled doing so. However, I have no problem voice chatting with people when I feel that bit extra 'sociable'.

[Amina Sopwith]

2 hours ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

Your characterization of SL relationships pretty much matches mine. RL contains so much drag and distraction that it's hard to match the intensity of SL relationships. Here, we fill in all the missing space with our imaginations, not the reality of the other person.

And of course, without the physical shared space, SL somehow tends to leave you always wanting more. 
 

[SpiritSparrow Skydancer]

10 hours ago, Arduenn Schwartzman said:

No, not general. If there's someone truly deaf, I'll type. But I have never been in such a situation.

In all other cases involving real work and real money, I'll use Voice (or better, Skype, because Voice is often unreliable and the noise cancellation sucks, so only in case of emergency) and they can listen and type if they feel uncomfortable speaking.

Oddly enough, the only people who I felt were uncomfortable speaking were techies who 'could not get their mic to work'.

skype also allows you to get peoples IPs..   right?

[Chaser Zaks]

I personally don't mind if someone uses text or voice. I however much prefer text over voice for the following reasons:

• I have autism(Asperger's to be specific). This makes social cues hard for me to recognize and makes it hard for me to understand when it is my turn to talk(in large groups). I often feel I might interrupt someone so I stay slient a lot.
• I have a lisp. It may be due to Asperger's or it might just be I'm bad with speaking. I know I can get speech therapy but I don't want to. It's part of who I am and I don't want to fix it. I only have a problem with this when people make fun of it.
• I personally think I sound too young and/or obnoxious. It could just be me but I don't want to worry people into "oh he is underaged!"(I'm not, I've actually had LL correct my DOB once before and they have the proof for the pudding), or people to leave because I sound annoying.

Now I do use discord and hang out with my friends in voice chat. I don't have a problem with that because they do not mind. I wouldn't mind using voice chat with friends in SL. I wouldn't use voice chat if I were the only one using it though. I don't however like to use voice chat in public areas or with strangers because if the reasons listed above.

Edited January 26, 2019 by Chaser Zaks

[Pussycat Catnap]

I never turn on voice. If a place I enjoy visiting is having a voice night, I tend to leave. I also tend to mute the volume anytime I'm at a 'DJ' event and the DJ starts talking. I also don't go to shows where there is a speaker, poet, or etc that is using voice or talking over music. I will listen to live singers but that is a rare exception and even then I sometimes cut out even when I like the music...

For me...

I just don't like the fantasy of how I imagine the avatars to be, to be shattered. In my head-space everyone I get to know has a certain character, voice, etc... and I like it to remain intact. Even each of my alts and my 'main' has her own voice and character that I like to keep intact and distinct... I can 'hear' my avatar speaking in my head I type, but not if I actually speak in place of her...

As Talligurl wrote, my SL and RL are separate. I was online early... weirdly even before the period in my life where I was homeless - I first got online in the 1980s, and I had read come Cyberpunk novels before that, which often had aspects of the old 'BBS' and 'ham radio' cultures in them. In those cultures, and in the streets where I grew up; people had nicknames or personas that were not themselves. This whole modern era of RL you 24/7 on Instagram was something people where I came up from would imagine as a nightmare dystopia we didn't think might ever actually be reality...

Voice is like a sledghammer to the mirror between RL self and persona - and when you shatter that mirror you chill the ability to have an actual honest discourse. People 'Code Talk' when they have no barrier. The 'RL always out there' actually hides truth and creates dishonesty...

Putting on the mask, unveils truth. It allows people the freedom to not Code Talk, to speak and be as their real inner self is.

And in this medium, that means using text.

So not only do I not use voice, I won't even participate as a listener. I would much rather read your truth than hear your lies.

Edited January 26, 2019 by Pussycat Catnap

[ThorinII]

17 minutes ago, Pussycat Catnap said:

[...] people had nicknames or personas that were not themselves.

Actually, half my RL friends use a nickname. I mean, we do know each other's real names, but we don't use them, at all. We all are much more comfortable using our nicknames. There's eg. »Nico«, »Joe«, »Willy«, I'm »Thorin« for these friends, and so on. All these are nicknames based on usernames we've been using on the Internet where we got to know each other in the first place.

The other half of my RL friends don't know this first half. It's a circle of people who insist on using their actual names or nicknames based on them. But with them, I'm not as open as with the others mentioned above.

[Arduenn Schwartzman]

5 hours ago, Tarina Sewell said:

skype also allows you to get peoples IPs..   right?

No.

[Anita61 Anatine]

I prefer text for various reasons, some of them:

I'm ususaly in the living room, people around me, tv on etc.

I'm not interested in hearing how your dog is barking in the background, you're munching on your snacks, or your kids crying

I'm not a native speaker and I hate my accent

I do listen when needed, in meetings or to interviews though I don't like wearing headphones

Text gives me some time to think about a reply, delete a remark or read the message when I have the time for it

 

 

[Selene Gregoire]

12 hours ago, Tarina Sewell said:

skype also allows you to get peoples IPs..   right?

 

6 hours ago, Arduenn Schwartzman said:

No.

https://www.wikihow.com/Find-the-IP-Address-of-a-Skype-User

https://www.hotspotshield.com/resources/how-to-find-someones-ip-address-skype/

http://citizensdebate.org/get-someones-ip-from-skype/

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/trace-ip-address-skype-call-46826.html

https://itstillworks.com/retrieve-skype-users-ip-7243510.html

[Arduenn Schwartzman]

 

@Selene

All those methods require a lot of tools and social engineering. If someone's willing to put that much effort in that, then better not use SL either. You can just about determine someone's IP address with anything if you don't take the right precautions.

https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/redzone-second-life-ip-address-detection-tool-runs-afoul-of-new-sl-policy-eu-data.477102/

[Selene Gregoire]

7 minutes ago, Arduenn Schwartzman said:

 

@Selene

All those methods require a lot of tools and social engineering. If someone's willing to put that much effort in that, then better not use SL either. You can just about determine someone's IP address with anything if you don't take the right precautions.

https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/redzone-second-life-ip-address-detection-tool-runs-afoul-of-new-sl-policy-eu-data.477102/

I haven't forgotten RedZone nor my involvement in getting it and him banned from SL.

Thank you for making my point for me.

[Arduenn Schwartzman]

10 minutes ago, Selene Gregoire said:

Thank you for making my point for me.

And thank you for finally understanding me and totally agreeing with me.

[Selene Gregoire]

26 minutes ago, Arduenn Schwartzman said:

And thank you for finally understanding me and totally agreeing with me.

I've understood you all along. I do not totally agree with you. 

BS tactics like the ones you've tried don't work on me.

[Lindal Kidd]

6 hours ago, Anita61 Anatine said:

I'm not a native speaker and I hate my accent

Anita, an awful lot of us think foreign accents are sexy and exotic.  This might be the one reason I can think of in favor of voice.

(I'm not encouraging you to use voice, though.  All I am saying is, don't hate your accent.  It's a good bet that others don't!)

[Rolig Loon]

1 minute ago, Lindal Kidd said:

Anita, an awful lot of us think foreign accents are sexy and exotic.  This might be the one reason I can think of in favor of voice.

Although I do not use voice myself, I agree that Lindal makes a good point. Ironically, I have found that the best way to tune my own ear to the sound of another language is to listen to how native speakers sound when they speak English.  Each language uses its own unique set of sounds, phrases its sentences differently, and uses voice inflections that are peculiar to that language alone.  When a native speaker of French or Swedish says something in English, she typically follows the rules of her own language.  If I listen carefully, her speech gives me clues about what I should sound like when I speak her language.  Your accent helps me. (And it might be sexy and exotic too, for all I know.  😊 )

[Annie Nova]

I prefer text over voice, because as someone said, it allows you to sort out what you want to say. I have voiced with VERY close friends but that's rare. 

[MoiraKathleen]

I don't use voice, primarily because I don't have a mic on my PC, but even if I did I don't think I would use voice.  My PC is in my living room and there would often be a lot of competing background noise.  

 

[bigmoe Whitfield]

I'm part of a huge community that does not have voice,  mostly because of lots of problems people point out here and since we are typically one of the first landing spots after they leave one of the learning islands..  it would/could/IS overload.   we get asked often why no voice, never had it on,  and personally.  I've used it,. but I blow the immersion out of the water when I'm on the 2nd account, it's not male lol.  so that gets looks and people are all

[Scylla Rhiadra]

5 hours ago, bigmoe Whitfield said:

I've used it,. but I blow the immersion out of the water when I'm on the 2nd account, it's not male lol.  so that gets looks and people are all

Even when one is using human avatars that are of the same biological sex, I think voice seriously degrades the immersive element in SL. At the moment, for whatever reason, an RL voice just does not work well with virtual avatars. Part of the problem, I think, may be that voice is non-directional: it sounds like a voice-over, or the Word of God from above, rather than an articulation of an in-world avatar. And, of course, there is too often a disconnect between the voice and the appearance of the avatar, for many reasons beyond representing a species or gender that one is not in RL. And, in the same way that connecting an avatar to a RL Facebook account undermines on the central principles of SL, I think voice tends to turn SL into a sort of "Skype with Cartoons."

I can also remember in my early days in SL, when voice was still something of a novelty, that it tended to divide communities, fracturing them along the lines of those that used it and those who did not. There was even an occasional instance of a sort of "elitism" among those who employed it.

I'm both a little surprised and gratified by the fact that voice has never really generally caught on here. I can't even remember the last time I was around someone using it.

[norajulian]

I honestly don’t mind either way. I’m surprised that so many commenters have said text, but I suppose that is to be expected in a text forum. 😉 

As a photographer, I do catch myself going on voice to speak to my clients as I tune camera angles and windlights to an exact. I talk to them during so that they don’t stand up before I’m completed, and it’s so much easier to hop in voice to explain what’s going on rather than stop doing what I’m doing to apologize to my client for taking a specific amount of time... also wasting more time by typing. I also explain (on voice) wedding walks and such during rehearsals because you tend to have 6+ people who might type over you in local as you try do what you’re paid to do.

i certainly don’t voice much, though. Perhaps it’s because I don’t game in other games? It doesn’t bother me to hear voice or to converse in text. 

[Akane Nacht]

Text only. I think of my avatar as a character with her own story, and a much sexier voice than mine 😎

[Laoise Rumsford]

I have social anxiety so I strongly prefer text.