Words

One of the problems with the ease of communication these days is the loss of personalization.  Maybe that's not the term I'm looking for, but it's the only one I can think of at present.  What I mean is something that maybe only happens to me, or perhaps it is more widespread.  In talking someone excessively online I tend to forget that they are in fact a real living person, a human being.

I'm not sure how to explain, exactly.  But it's as though the words, the phrases, the odd quirks I see only in their typing are an individual of their own, oftentimes completely removed from the real human I know to exist in this physical world.  And every so often, I have this odd moment of awakening that makes me realize that this person is real, that they exist and I can come face to face with them...that they are physically present in this same world as me, and it feels odd almost as though I had forgotten this fact.

I realize when talking to someone that they are in fact a real person, that I may see them in a given number of days or whatnot.  But at the same time, the person I talk to online and the person I see and talk to in real life are never quite the same.  They're part of the same individual, certainly...they have similar characteristics and mannerisms, but sometimes it is as though the two tell me different things, or at the very least convey them differently.

This dichotomy is a given considering that the physical person can give a look, or a touch, whereas the online persona is restricted to words, which can't even have inflection.  But at the same time, that shattering realization of "that person exists" never fails to phase me.  It catches me off guard and makes me reconsider what I may have said.  Did I reveal to much?  In the end though, I figure that it doesn't make a difference to me.  The two are, after all, a part of the same person.  If I trust one of them with given information, I have no reason to doubt the other.