If like me, you have used at any point tried to use Siri on your MacBook air, or you have used any program that automatically tries to reduce background noise, this is a warning. Your MacBook Air has a hard time trying to reduce background noise because it's not built for that, and therefor will also reduce the sound of your voice. However this said, there is actually a surprisingly simple way to solve this issue that I have found. Just follow these simple steps and (hopefully) will solve the issue of you sounds really far away from your microphone.
- Open system Preferences.
- Select sound.
- Select the 'Input' tab.
- Deselect the 'reduce ambient noise reduction' box, making sure it's not highlighted blue.
- Make sure your input volume is maximized.
- Double check to make sure that your built-in microphone is selected if you have any external audio devices plugged into your laptop.
This has helped solved my issue when it comes to me sounding really far to my friends, and family.