1. How do you define an avatar? Enumerate the consensus definition.
An avatar is an online representation of a computer user that may reflect his/her identity. Since there are different types of computer users, an avatar can be project in different ways. It may be the person's projection or idealization, or it can just be any experimented character that the user wants to be seen as. In short, in can illustrate the user's appearance and personality or it may be the opposite. The appearance of an avatar depends on the computer user's motivation or purpose.
2. Does definition of what character or personality your avatar has would only be defined in the role-playing games? Explain your answers.
No, an avatar would not only be defined in role-playing games because it is also a representation of oneself. Avatars can be an image of a person in a virtual world and it reflects his/her appearance, hobbies and interests. Basically, there is no rule in creating your own avatar an it can be anything under the sun
3. Do you want to be defined as an individual or entity virtually based on your avatar or online name? Why or why not.
The group all wanted not to be judged based on his/her own avatar or online name. Even though we believe that an avatar may be a reflection of one's personality, it cannot fully define you as a person. Your avatar or online name might have a different meaning for other people and they might misinterpret it. This is why it is important that we should not judge a person by merely basing it on the virtual world.
4. Do you find any significance of having a purposeful avatar or online identity?
Creating an avatar and treating it as a display picture to any of one's social networks or any online account is important since it represents oneself. It reflects the values, attitudes, and personalities of the owner which might affect on how people should treat the person. Having an interesting avatar also catches the attention of the viewers. At the same time, it can also tell something about the activities of a person.
5. Does having multiple characters imply negative or positive impact to the person? Give at least two examples and explain your answers.
Having multiple characters online can actually bring both positive and negative impacts to the person.
Example #1: A blogger changes his display picture or avatar from a basketball player to a golf player. Let's say from Lebron James to Tiger Woods because he decided to form a new content for his blog because of the change in his interests.
Positive: Due to the change of his display picture, it might catch the attention of his followers which will cause the users to visit his page. This means that there is a big change that a lot of people will see his blog. It can also be a good part for the owner because he had this freedom to change the picture according to the type of article he is working on. Moreover, the new avatar will speak for the owner's work itself.
Negative: Changing the display picture can cause people to unfollow the owner maybe because they don't recognize or they are not familiar with the new image. This means that a fewer number of people will read the blog. Changing the image in this case also means taking the risk since the owner is not yet sure of his specific audience because a change of theme also means change of audience. It might bring a hard time for the owner to look for new followers.
Example #2: A Yahoo! Messenger user changes her avatar from a simple to an exaggerated one.
Positive: She was able to have this sense of fulfillment of using the application's features about customizing the avatar. It's also part of experimenting or editing the avatar because she used it to picture her goal like "a picture of what she wanted to be". It's one way of telling people that there's a change/you want to change.
Negative: It might not reflect who she really is and her chatmates might have a thinking that she is having a wrong avatar for herself. There might be a misunderstanding that can come along the way.
6. If you will be asked to make an avatar for yourself today as a Social Being in the #Socmed class, how will you draw your avatar? And what #onlinename will you use?
Andrea: I will make my avatar similar to my physical self as much as possible. I will also include some other stuff that can show my likes. For example, I can wear my favorite color or style of outfit. As usual, my online name would be Baorea which orignated from Baolong + Andrea. Baolong is the nickname of my favorite star Jerry Yan back in grade school.
Aica: My avatar should look like me. As much as possible, I want to see it as just a portrait of myself which has been animated. I want to keep it simple since it reflects my personality. The online name I am going to use might be: #aiczkey, #aiczzz, or #glitzyONE. Both #aiczkey and #aiczzz are termed after my nickname. #aiczkey was given to me by a classmate when we were in high school. Some people call me #aiczzz though I introduced myself to them as Aica. #glitzyONE is the username I have for this online game, Gunbound.
Luigi:
Bon: I wil make my avatar look like a pirate. I will picture my avatar with a bass guitar. I would name it 'theb0n' or since I always use that online name.
