Avatar

Take a look at the picture at the bottom of the webpage. This is an avatar that I recently created. You may be wondering if a correct depiction of myself. I hate to break the news to my readers but this looks nothing like me. Below is a picture of myself and then below that is a picture of my avatar

While this may not be a correct image of what I look like, there is a reason behind the way my avatar looks. Step by step you, the reader will see why my avatar is the way it is.

First, one may wonder why my avatar is so shaggy and green. There are a couple of reasons behind this. First and foremost I have always had a liking to the color green. But, I obviously don’t have green hair because my parents would disown me in near seconds. As for the long hair I am projecting what I wish my hair looked like. Both of these choices are what I wish my hair would look like in real life.

Now as we move down the avatar we see that he has a freshly shaved chin hair along with a shirt with a duff beer imprinted on it. I chose chin hair for my avatar because in all honesty I love facial hair. It makes normal people look 20 times cooler that they actually are in my opinion. With these statements one can infer that a person who has beards likes to use facial hair as a mask to hide behind what they really are.

The shirt was the last object on this avatar that had a thought process. To start off, who doesn’t love beer? It shows that I can be an easy-going kid who likes to have a good time. I also choose it to make my avatar to seem like a “cool kid”. Similarly to the chin hair I may be using the beer to try to fit in with what I think to be cool. I’m not making decisions based on my own. I’m letting others dictate what I should wear in order to fit in with the norms of society.

The shoes and the sox however have no real distinct reason for the avatar. I really was in just a rush to get through making my avatar. Also, you can only change the colors of the pants and shoes, which doesn’t allow room for expression. This in turn could represent the struggles I sometimes have to coherently express my self. I struggle with this constantly in class and the shoes and pants in the avatar serve as a reminder of that for me.

After going step by step of the clothing lets take a look at this avatar as a whole. What does he represent for me? The most apparent answer is this avatar is who I wish I could become. To me this is a free-caring person with no problems in his life. His facial hair and his hair exemplify a free-flowing personality. He represents the person I wish I could be if I didn’t care so much about my self-image.

At the same time this man represents counter culture inside of me. Even though I don’t look like it, I would consider myself a hippie or a person of that sort.  I listen to music and hang out with much more people who are not of my race and are primarily white hipsters. Through this avatar I am showing what I feel like on the inside. I may not look like this but at my core this avatar is who I really am.

Another huge difference between the real me and the avatar me is the distinct difference in size in weight. I don’t like to admit this  but I’ll admit I’m a bit on the heavy side. This avatar shows what I hope I could look like one day. One can infer that I am unhappy with the situation weight-wise and this avatar shows what I wished I looked like. This isn’t for sure, but just an idea to why I choose my avatar to look this way.

Also, this avatar not only shows who I wish to be in real life but represents who I am online. This person is somebody who is free caring as well as “hip” and “cool”. While online the way I communicate is very different compared to real life. Through my avatar I communicate this very clearly. From my avatar’s appearance one can infer the person is somebody who is somewhat normal and popular in a sense.

This is precisely what I portray through my avatar. In real life I am in no way similar to my avatar. My avatar represents the digital me. This is a person that can hide behind the computer and not be judged. People don’t need to know what I actually like or who I actually am. It provides a level of freedom to express myself.

What avatars provide for myself and other people are so essential to personal identity in my opinion. It allows people to freely express themselves. People can become whatever they wish to be. In such games such as World of Warcraft or any other MMO’s serve as an example of when avatars can have a positive effect on people.

For example, a study by Constance Steinkuhler gives us some examples of how MMO’s operate as a third place. One concept is called the leveler, in which rank and in real life doesn’t apply to MMO’s. Avatars in MMO’s perpetuate a persons status in real life. This allows for people such as myself to make an avatar that identifies our true online identity.

This idea is central to why my avatar looks the way it does. Without any constraints from the outside world I am able to make an avatar showing my true self. If I was   judged by how my avatar looked it may not correctly define my true online self. That is why my avatar looks the way it does.