You raise some interesting caveats. There is a greater latitude for role playing here. We may disguise our age, our sex, our location, our social class, and other details much more easily than in "3D". I agree that it is reasonable to assume that most people are truthful most of the time, but the element of doubt is, I think, necessarily greater. And while you are right that we have a freedom here to shoot from the hip without social sanction, which is missing in normal social interaction, it remains true that intonation, expression, gesture, and attitude, as evidenced by physical disposition, are valuable aids to understanding the precise meaning of someone's conversation.
Finally, you are right, people do not cease to exist because they use aliases or refrain from face- to- face encounter. Lenin and Stalin became known by their aliases, and J.D. Salinger is not only reclusive, but one of the most influential novelists of the post- War period....... |
