Search the Community

Or am I? Conversations I had today in-world (after a multi-year absence) with two old and very dear friends in Second Life left me thinking about how we use "voice" -- or more accurately, for most of us, text -- to establish "who we are" here. There are a few ways that we can self-fashion here: through clothes, obviously, and profile, and AO, but surely the most important is the distinctive "voice" that we project through text. And these vary, sometimes enormously, from context to context. On the forum, for instance, I tend, most often, to use measured prose, that is, I hope, relatively lucid and "casual," but not colloquial. It's somewhat like the voice that I use, for instance, for emails in RL. (There are, of course, exceptions to that rule.) But in-world, the way that I self-present can, I think, vary widely. It's obviously different from how I "speak" here, if only because it's produced in shorter spurts, and is most often in response to an ongoing, dynamic conversation. But I've noticed that, while I will often "speak" in relatively long and complicated statements, the context of close friends, or at least certain kinds of close friends, tends to have me speaking in shorter, more breathless messages. I'll use more single word messages. I'll be sharper or more sarcastic. I'll use all caps (a LOT, apparently). I'll "banter." Around men (I'm boringly hetero), I'll be a bit . . . manic. Not giggly (I don't giggle) but . . . without the kind of authoritative and calm voice I use elsewhere. (And that's not because I am looking for a hook-up, because I'm not.) That last phenomenon is for me to figure out. As a feminist, I find it interesting, if not troubling. But the questions I want to ask people here are: 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? Or, ignore the above, and just tell us something about who you "are" here!