In Second Life, most of our communications are text based. And again and again we learn how easily a single word can lead to misunderstandings. Today, I got hit from both directions in the same day. In the early part of the day I had to defend myself from a friend who felt I had insulted him with a single word that I had used in humor, but which didn’t come across that way to him. In the evening, I became angry by someone I respected when she used a single word that she felt was meant in humor but indicates disrespect. There’s more to both stories but the basic problem is that you can do disportionate damage when you use the wrong word or can’t color your word choice with your intentions. It’s these kinds of special Second Life situations that makes me so weary of virtual life sometimes. Today was a wretched day and if I weren’t going to an in-world marriage of two great people tommorrow, I’m not sure when I’d return.