Avatar, Defined

An avatar is a personality portrait. It is a documentation of personality and community. And like any other form of popular art, it’s an intensely social vehicle constructed for virtual communities.

Though it varies from avatar to avatar, and system to system, we can see some core functions that allow avatars to exist in their very different kinds of worlds.

An avatar is a portrayal, or a documentation, of three primary things:
1) Profile
2) Friends
3) Groups

First is the documentation of the profile. The profile has a picture of some sort, showing what the avatar looks like (which may not have anything to do with its real world owner). After that the profile is a collection of documents; documentation of experiences, memories, thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. Maybe these are poems or essays, maybe they are links to songs or video files. There’s generally something about the physical aspect of the personality – a photograph or drawing (which may or may not have anything to do with the avatar’s real world owner). And often there’s various stats and measurements (age, gender, etc).

Second is the documentation of friends. This is the avatar’s immediate community, family, and close friends. These are the avatars of others that are of immediate interest and are probably similar in style and taste. In Fern’s case it was her husband (the bearded guy in front of the house) and her dog (who got more photos than the husband).

Third is the documentation of groups. This is the avatar’s extended community. These are folks that the avatar considers as important enough to point out. In Fern’s case it was Howard and the other folks that went to Disneyland. This third bit is important because it has a lot to say about an avatar’s social position. We are all born with a family, but the extended network, the extended community, is something that is earned and often times a representation of merit. For example, some users pride themselves on the size of their social network. This is a kind of measurement of popularity and offers many users a measurement of their worth in the community. This is a basic human instinct; if we throw a party we want people to come.

Taken like that, an avatar is a pretty flexible thing. It might be a Playboy Centerfold. It might be a baseball card . It might be a CIA dossier. It might be a Dungeons & Dragons Player-Character sheet.

An avatar is a personality portrait. It is a documentation of personality and community.

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