It would be curious to see a graph or some other set of numbers expressing the ratio of third and first person narratives over the last couple of centuries. Would it reflect how societies were over the years? In a world like the seventeenth century where the idea of an "inner voice" was not prevalent (if even existent), many stories were written in third person. There was no "internal" dialogue. There were soliloquies and monologues.
Today, what is the ratio of first person to third person perspective of the speaker? For example, The Hunger Games is first person--Katniss's point of view. However, other books, like Scott Lynch's The Gentleman Bastards series is third person. Does the chosen point of view give insight into the author? Or is it merely, and nothing else, a story-telling device? Arguably, it is both. (It is definitely a story-telling device whatever else it may be, of course.)
Do the points of view chosen in writing influence readers? Reading, according to various articles (some from HuffPost, some from Book Riot, some from other sources), have indicated that reading helps develop interpersonal skills such as empathy and moral understanding. Does it also influence how a reader understands his or her point of view? That is, does a person who reads more first-person P.o.V. stories focus largely on herself when thinking, wrapped up in a cocoon of thought tied directly to her person? Thoughts such as, "Oh goodness, does she dislike me for having said this phrase?" and "I must look silly, dancing here like this" and "Why must everyone be staring at me today? Have I done something, or is there something on my face, maybe?" As one who has those thoughts, this question is of import.
There is the need to get "outside" my head. By writing and reading stories from the first person perspective, do I immediately teach myself to not be as prone to see others' points of view? I'm unsure. Obviously, I will read books, regardless of how and in what perspective they are written, but it is a curious question worth pondering. I worry my writing, my attempts to create meaningful, humanized, and relate-able characters outside my protagonist, that it all suffers from my tendency to write in first person. I must work on building characters that are fully-fledged individuals in their own rights, not mere extras in the background of my protagonist's story...
