Speaking of Voice

It seems that SL with voice is the latest buzz. I have thus far avoided it, and unless someone gives me good reason, I'll probably continue to to so. Don't get me wrong, I can understand the attraction: it potentially provides an additional depth to the way we interact in a digitally flattened world. A popular video parodies this single dimensionality well. Brillaintly funny, to me the most striking feature of the video is how free of aural clutter it is, the opposite of our real lives. And honestly, so much of Second life seems empty for this reason, even when you are surrounded by other avatars.

The problem I have is two-fold. First, Voice in SL inherently breaks the "secondness" of SL. Second Life is, for many, an escape from our various realities, and quite frankly, I'm not sure I want your voice echoing in my study. That might be too real. No offense, but I've assigned voices for all of you, and in some ways, I don't want to be disappointed. More on this point is spoken of in this Wired article (thanks Trinsic!).

The second, oft-overlooked problem with Voice are the very things that people crave: its ease and immediacy. Text chat is cumbersome. It takes time to get your ideas across. As a result, chatters generally have to embrace both efficiency and thoughtfulness to get their thoughts across effectively. For example, you don't see a whole lot of swearing in SL chat because for most people, swearing is just posturing or wasted breath. Sure, there are places where the language is more mature than others, but you don't get cases where every word typed by someone is "fuck" or some derivative. People are typically more careful about what they say because it takes more work to say it.

On top of that, I think people actually "listen" more in text chat. I can't actually state this from any position of experience regarding SL Voice, but contrasted with real life, it seems like people actually pay attention to whatever is typed. Maybe its because the written word carries so much weight for us. Or maybe because we carefully read type for subtle nuances, as it is devoid of the overt tonal emotional content of speech. Or maybe simply because you can go back and re-read text you might have missed or misunderstood on the first pass. In any case, when typing, it's nice to know that people actually hear me.