Behind the glasses

Creating an avatar this week was a fun exercise in online identity presentation.  It made me think of both why I chose the avatar I did, as well as how others represent themselves online.  I discovered that in general, people were truthfully representing an aspect of themselves.  However, the representation changed depending on where the avatar was used.

I chose to put sunglasses on my avatar.  This is typical for me in my daily life.  I find it easier to avoid unnecessary interaction with others by minimizing eye contact.  I gives me a sense of privacy, and my avatar carries that  representation into the virtual world.  

My boyfriend has an avatar that he uses for Xbox live.  He tends to play with the same group of guys, at times including friends of friends.  This allows him to be very familiar with those he interacts with.  Therefore he includes personal attributes on his avatar that only his friends would understand, like a visual inside joke.

On Facebook people often change their profile pictures.  Often pictures of events or places are taking the place of face shots.  Even inanimate objects represent quite well.  A friend of mine on Facebook recently replaced her profile picture with that of a Greek statue, and if you know her, it showcases her personality well.

Timely for this discussion, I was having a discussion with a customer earlier this week and he was discussing the appropriateness of using an avatar for an online dating website for his profile picture.  I said that I thought it was a cool way to relay a bit of personal information in a nontraditional way.  It also allowed the observer to development an opinion based on other relevant information, before being confronted with physical appearances.  

All of these examples show that people use avatars as representations of real parts of themselves.  This information sharing may be just as intimate as what we can get from actual photos.