What Is My Avatar? Who Is My Avatar? The Avatar as a Device to Achieve a Goal: Perceptions and Implications

Abstract

This paper examines how senses of online identity may converge with, and diverge from, those of offline identity through a case study of the intentions behind, and interpretations of, avatar use within the virtual environment of Second Life™ among a group of UK university students. In exploring the participants’ rationales for their choices of avatar names and avatar appearances, the study witnesses ongoing shifts in notions of selfhood (and the conditions and strategies by which selfhood is determined), which may reflect theoretical projections as to the redefinition of paradigms of subjectivity fostered by the incremental virtualisation of ­societal experience.