Which is our reality?

Language, the use of words and images to tell a story, is the basis of society. Without the means of communication humans would never have been capable of carving out their own slice of lands, their own space. Language also helps maintain a sense of place with the use of names and landmarks, these verbal and visual uses of language can help a person map their life and land in a satisfactory manner.

These concepts take place in the virtual world, especially on the social media site, Wattpad. A social story sharing site, Wattpaddians upload their own stories and read others, inviting them into worlds they have never encountered. These worlds are created through the use of language, with many authors creating their own words and phrases for their own worlds, in a sense creating a place amongst the pages.

If, as Tuan says, “…story telling converts real objects “out there” into real presences” then the use of unique terminologies only found in these stories is essentially creating a world that, whilst easily identifiable by those who have read the story, aren’t locatable in what we perceive to be the real world. Does this make these worlds more or less real?

Wattpad offers the chance to engage in worlds some people might have never had the chance to encounter. The use of language in story telling aids the writer and reader in creating a world outside of their own reality, a place and space that only exists to them in that moment. Words created specifically for these worlds are creating a place beyond our own reality, essentially creating a reality of its own. Wattpad is the window to these worlds and therefore, to multiple places and realities.

References: 

Yi-Fu Tuan, Language And The Making Of Place: A Narrative-Descriptive Approach, PG 686, Taylor and Francis, LTD (Dec, 1991)