Bill Berg – Online identity and Representation

Identity and Representation

At the core of the internet’s evolution to Web 2.0 lies the instinctual human element of community. By definition a community is a group of interacting people in a common location. Individuals belonging to a community value the presence of one another and community members contribute value that benefits the overall group. One might identify themselves as members of a geographical community like a neighborhood or a city. Maybe a community that forms around a specific interest like an automotive club. Before information technologies, members of a community needed to share a physical space and were represented by a human body. Human interaction through talking, laughing, writing etc. is mediated by the physical co-presence of participating community members.

Enter: the Internet.

The dawn of information technology has fundamentally changed the way human beings interact with each other. In the context of community, physical presence of members is no longer required. Internet-based platforms work as virtual spaces where digital representations of real people come together to interact. Author Howard Rheingold wrote in The Virtual Community that online communities happen “when people carry on public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships.” (1) The condition for online community according to Rheingold seems to be similar to the way traditional communities were formed. I believe that online communities demonstrate the internet’s ability to facilitate man’s instinctual urge to connect and communicate.

Although this hypothesis seems to be more correct as information technologies evolve, it still warrants research as to how and why it is happening. For the purposes of this blog post, I will be focusing on the way humans digitally represent themselves within various web community platforms.

The Avatar

The term ‘avatar’ once had nothing to do with computers. The term actually derives from the Sanskrit word for “form of self” used in many Indian languages. (2) In the cyberpunk novel, Snow Crash, author Neal Stephenson used the term to describe the digital representation of a character in a virtual reality-like setting. (3) Within the last few years, the term ‘avatar’ has become main stream. In fact, the fourth definition of the term in the Webster’s Dictionary states: “an electronic image that represents and is manipulated by a computer user (as in a computer game).” (4) The dictionary definition is the one most commonly associated with the term today.

Internet Forums

While the modern-day avatar can take many forms, early versions were rudimentary in comparison. Early avatars were used on a wide-spread basis on internet forums. Forum users were identified by a user name, and then could associate a small picture that would appear on each one of their posts. The following picture is an example from an internet forum I visit:

The username, ‘kungfoowoo’, sits above the avatar in this photo. The line of text that reads: “Resident Smart Phone Guru” is known as a ‘user text’.

So what does this example tell us about the user kungfoowoo?

In an online forum, the user controls the way they are represented in the virtual space. Users are keen to choose things that may have correlation with their offline selves. The avatar, depending on what it is, might give us a clue as to what kungfoowoo is all about off the internet.

It seems that (for this particular online community) kungfoowoo is interested in cell phones. The avatar is a picture of three different phones that may have some significance to his/her online identity and the user text strengthens this identity he/she assumes. We can also see the content of one specific post of this user. Again, kungfoowoo perpetuates the same identity as one that is interested in cell phones. While some users prefer to use an avatar that resembles their real-life physical identity, users like kungfoowoo use online representation to signify a personal interest.

Video Games

Virtual graphic representation of a human is also a concept dealt with in video games past and present. In the past, gamers would often assume the role of an avatar with pre set attributes. Players would control an avatar whose characteristics may not reflect the user at all. The days of individualization had not reached the gaming world and avatar customization was limited. However, this may speak to a different function of the avatar. Cook Fields, and Kafai (2007) cite that role playing was a factor in determining how a teen designed an avatar. To a certain degree, I think this idea can be applied to video gaming. Video games in the past allowed users to try on a different identity then their own. The avatar could serve as a means of fulfillment for the user. For example, we know that the video game character ‘Duke Nukem’ is strong, brave, fearless, and has a general disregard for the law. Perhaps the Duke Nukem persona is an identity that has a fantastical allure to someone without them. I mean, how cool would it be to be Duke Nukem for a day? What about for a week?

Looking at this comparison between real people and their online counterparts might help illustrate my point. The New York Times compiled photos of real people juxtaposed next to photos of their avatar:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/06/15/magazine/20070617_AVATAR_SLIDESHOW_1.html

Web 2.0’s societal infiltration eventually made its way to video games as well. The hugely popular Xbox Live service, which has expanded with the help of rising high speed internet usage, allows players to create avatars of themselves. Users can then interact with social networking-like tools. Gaming seems to be entering a sort of ‘flat’ period that centers around the experience with others.These avatars are in addition to the traditional in-game avatars gamers are used to. Xbox Live avatars live in the Xbox Live community which is separate from the game.

It seems that the standard of avatar realism in the Xbox Live community is higher than an in-game avatar. In other words, one’s Xbox Live avatar may be expected to resemble the real body of the user. The Xbox avatars can be made to look very regular. In my experience, the avatars look like regular people rather than outlandish avatar models found in the games themselves. Because it is impossible to see the person behind the profile, one can only assume that they might resemble their avatar. To offer some insight into why, one should look at the purpose of the Xbox Live service: To build community. Perhaps the increased expectation of realism is meant to give strangers a digital sense of closeness. Users of the service can interact via voice, but few are able to see each other. By making one’s avatar look like the real-life counterpart, it may enhance the feeling of community because users are able to imagine a digital entity as a physical one.

Virtual Worlds

The best example of avatar customization may come from the game Second Life. The game is relatively well-known now and I will spare the details of how it works. In Second Life, avatars can take the form of just about anything. In this video, we can see a variety of avatar types as they interact in Second Life. As these users argue, take note of how much this might resemble a real-life situation except in a virtual space with avatars.

The implication here is how this function of the medium (Second Life) might change what an avatar means to a user. The avatar design motivations outlined by Cook, Fields, and Kafai (2007) might also fit in here as well. (5) Perhaps complete avatar flexibility helps a real-life user role play in ways that were previously not possible.

Avatars in Second Life can also interact in a limitless amount of ways. Users can dance, talk, fly, drive, and even have sex. Does this ability change the role of the avatar? I think it does. Living a life with an avatar on Second Life allows the user to do just about everything you can in real life. In fact, it may allow some people to do more. Consider someone that is physically or mentally unable to interact with others offline. Perhaps living through an avatar on a virtual platform like Second Life is a significant alternative. I don’t think it is too unreasonable to believe that an avatar plays a more significant role in their lives.

Social Networks

Online representation can be examined in the context of the modern social networking site (SNS) as well. One’s avatar on an SNS most likely is information-based rather than graphically based. Focusing specifically on the site that are the most popular, think about a Facebook profile. A Facebook user might have pictures, interests, favorite things, applications, political affiliation etc. These attributes all contribute to this user’s online representation. The SNS version of an avatar is slightly different in that the expectation of truth is the highest. A site like Facebook is meant to strengthen an offline identity rather than create an online one. Many users (like college students) know their Facebook friends offline.  Users are encouraged to reach out to other real people interested in the same things. Groups and fan pages are creative ways to do so.

The role of the avatar on an SNS is different than the others. Identities are meant to correspond to a real person and strengthen that identity on the web.

Issues

As we have seen, online representation can be a powerful tool. However, the nature of the internet leaves a gaping gray area where some questions remain unanswerable.

Online identities have implications in the area of security. Obviously not everything on the internet is true, but what are we to believe? There is really no way of knowing what information individuals perpetuate is real or fake. People are often led astray by dishonesty. For example, e-mail scams were an early form of online identity fraud. Millions of dollars have been stolen by way of scam artists who deceive people into believing a false online identity.

Also, online identity can also be used to prevent crime. On NBC’s hit show To Catch a Predator would be sex offenders were lured to a home and arrested based on their willingness to engage in sexual conduct with the online identity of a minor. In this case, the online identity was a minor but the person behind the identity was not. This tricky situation asks the question: Do online identities count as real people? Chris Hansen and To Catch a Predator acted as someone who didn’t even exist and was still able to arrest suspects by proving intent to commit a crime against a virtual person.

These concerns associated with online identity have yet to be resolved. It seems that the widespread use of avatars might only add fuel to the flames. For example, a Second Life user attempted to sue other users of the game for infringing on her copyright in a YouTube video. (6)

The preceding concerns with law and identity will eventually need to be addressed by a congressional body. Law will have to decide if avatars are property, people, have rights etc. The way things are going it only seems that these concerns will grow.

Finding our Identity

I will end this post with a website created by MIT. Once one types their name into the text box, the ‘Personas’ project gathers information from around the web to develop three different personas based on information that exists online. The project demonstrates the vastness of the internet and how one can carve out an online identity with limitless possibilities.

http://personas.media.mit.edu/

(1)    Rheingold, Howard (1993). The Virtual Community (1st. ed.). Addison-Wesley Pub. Co. ISBN 9780201608700. Retrieved 2008-12-29.

(2)   Avatar (computing). (2009, December 12). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 03:47, December 13, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Avatar_(computing)&oldid=331321086

(3)    The Beginner’s Web Glossary. http://www.cwru.edu/help/webglossary.html

(4)   avatar. (2009). In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.
Retrieved December 12, 2009, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/avatar

(5)    Cook, Fields, and Kafai (2007). Your Second Selves: Resources, Agency, and Constraints in Avatar Designs and Identity Play in a Tween Virtual World.  http://www.digra.org/dl/db/07311.32337.pdf

(6)    The legal rights to your ‘Second Life’ avatar. http://bit.ly/6PoEa0

About the Author

I am a senior at the University of Minnesota and will be graduating in the Spring of 2010. My major is in Advertising and I hope to work in that field sometime next year.