What do Avatars Mean to Us
Our blogs, Twitter, Flickr, and all these places where we leave a bit of our social identity behind all offer yet another chance to upload a picture to represent us in this space. It’s the classic game Monopoly played out over and over and over. You want to be the thimble? No, I’m the car. Who gets the top hat? Only now, we can use pictures of ourselves. And this is revealing.
Changing our computers, our desktops, our online spaces is important to us. Customization and personalization are important. And as part of this, our icon, our avatar, our little square to show who we are matters too.
Some people use graphics. Others use symbols that represent something important to them. Some use pictures of themselves, and change them out frequently. Others have used the same picture everywhere for years.
And here’s a really interesting detail that came out in the conversations: what we choose as an avatar seems to relate to our self-image, our self-esteem, and what we think about when we look in the mirror.
I asked a few questions on Twitter about it, and got some interesting responses. I want to keep asking the question here:
What does your avatar mean to you? Do you change it often (on whatever services require one)? Do you use a picture of yourself or something else? Talk about avatars and what they mean to you in the comments, if you will. Talk about your online identity and how icons and avatars play into it.
Curious to hear your thoughts.
