Second-Person: The Black Sheep of Perspective

 When thinking of first, second, and third-person points of view across various media, all three are easy to picture in literature. "I" and "me" tell you first-person's dominating. Same with "She" and "her" and third-person. However, second-person perspective seems to be the outlier of the three. Sure, it's simple to distinguish from the other two with the use of "you" and "your", but how often does one see that in works of fictional literature or informational articles? Maybe sometimes in especially unique essays or simpler informational writing, but what about works of pure creativity? In fantasy and other kinds of fiction? I've personally only seen it being used consistently a handful of times. For that reason, it's quite jarring every time I see it.

However, this phenomenon is not just in writing. Think of first-person video games. Those are pretty standard. Minecraft and Call of Duty come to mind first. Then, third-person. Fortnite. You're looking at someone else doing what you can essentially "control"--or understand. However... what in the world is a second-person game?

This kind of format is vastly unpopular--and even if a game did spring up with this kind of perspective, it would likely not be identified as having such. However, I personally have always found this kind of storytelling in game media to be interesting, despite my lack of knowledge of it even being second-person. In my opinion, it works best with horror games. Imagine this: you're running around an environment, but the only perspective you get to see your own avatar is someone looking at you. So creepy!

The gist is that second-person is special. It's engaging, and it can be eerie when used right. It definitely deserves some more attention because of its capabilities--but maybe it's so special because it's the black sheep. Like a sacred gift, only given to some personal and nuanced experiences that neither first- or third-person perspective can handle on their own.