[easrng]

It's not an emulation, it's just different. As for not being able to convey tone? skill issue. You can do it, emojis help, formatting helps, even with plain text you can repeat punctuation or AlTeRnAtE cAsEs or whatever, that's without even getting in to 1337speak style typing quirks (there's more than just replacing E with 3). I frequently rewrite messages before sending, but I do that irl too, I just say corrections out loud which is harder for the person listening to track than if I just had an textfield to compose what I wanted to say. As for usernames, they don't mean anything, they're just pointers to the people who use them. You say I can make up a "fake" persona, but what does fake even mean? Why does it matter if who I am online isn't a 1-to-1 copy of my irl self? They're both reflections of my personality, and that's what matters. And psuedoanonymity isn't the same as anonymity. I have an online identity, I have people who know me by it, and I wouldn't want to just throw all those connections away. If I said something fucked up, I would presumably lose my friends and such, and sure I could make a new identity but making a new identity and forming new relationships isn't a trivial thing to do. Just because you can't see my body doesn't make my identity any less real imo.