Many people assume that your typical avatar is either the animated creatures appearing in the film, or a cartoon character usually used as a display picture. An avatar however can be in many different forms, more than realised by most people. An avatar is a digital representation of you, so anything acting as you in a picture or anything that you are using to represent yourself is considered an avatar. FaceBook and MySpace pictures for example often include a character that people use instead of themselves, people do this for many reasons. Avatars are like a language because they act as a signifier to the signified – the signified being you. We use them to get our personalities across.
Many [young people] began participating in social networks because of the available social voyeurism and the opportunity to craft a personal representation in an increasingly popular online community. This community, in which they exist, can be created into anything they want. People make sure that they are perfect within this community – avatars are sometimes produced to ‘improve’ how people appeal to others, an escape from reality and an improvement of status. A MySpace can be seen as a form of digital body where individuals must write themselves into body. Identity can be seen as a social process that is fluid and contingent on the situation. Avatars can help when writing yourself into being and can be used to express identity. In choosing Friends, teens write their community into being, which is precisely why this feature is so loved and despised.
Online communities hold a huge importance for young people; one reason being that online access provides a whole new social realm for youth. Furthermore, because Friends are displayed on the individual’s profile, they provide meaningful information about that person; in other words, “You are who you know” for better or worse, people judge others based on their associations: group identities form around are reinforced by the collective tastes and attitudes of those who identify with the group. Therefore how they present themselves must be perfect, they finally belong to a community that they have control over. Evidence supporting just how important social networks are for youths can be revealed in this statement by Skyler, 18 – “If you’re not on MySpace, you don’t exist”.
Avatars also have a psychological meaning, something that isn’t obvious to many people. In everyday interactions, the body serves as a critical site of identity performance. In conveying who we are to other people, we use our bodies to project information about ourselves. This is done through movement, clothes, speech, and facial expressions. What we put forward is our best effort at what we want to say about who we are. People have complete control of the creation of their avatar, not only do most people produce them closely to how they look in real life but also how they see themselves. This helps others to figure out who they are as a person and what kind of personality they may hold. More so it also helps people to figure out their own identity and by allowing youths to hang out amongst their friends and classmates, social network sites are providing teens with a space to work out the identity and status of others as well as themselves. Teens are modelling identity through social network profiles so that they can write themselves into being. Avatars create a path for youths to do so.
Avatars may also be used if a person does not want to reveal too much about who they are. However, teens often fabricate key identifying information like name, age and location to protect themselves. While parents’ groups often encourage this deception to protect teens from strangers, any teens actually engage in this practice to protect themselves from the watchful eye of parents.
Some would agree that MySpace should be recognised as my space, a space for teenagers to be teenagers. Overall, avatars have many different social and psychological functions. Most of which belong to everyone that uses them, whether they realise it or not.
Some would agree that MySpace should be recognised as my space, a space for teenagers to be teenagers. Overall, avatars have many different social and psychological functions. Most of which belong to everyone that uses them, whether they realise it or not.
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