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The Significance of Avatars for Internet Forums Users
Abstract
The questions of virtual representation and online identity are growing in salience for academicians ever since the inception of the Internet. Although the main flow of public online interaction and research into it have shifted towards social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, or audio-visual environments of digital games, online forums still occupy a sizable niche for thematic and more professional or hobby-oriented communication. Current paper is analyzing one of the main visual elements used to create identity of forum users, the avatars: small (usually static) images that users choose to represent their virtual selves with. The focus of this research is on the degree of attachment and the kinds of meanings that users attribute to their avatars in online forums’ asynchronous interactive environments. This research applies grounded theory approach and relies heavily on triangulation of data collection and coding. The implemented sampling strategies are typical case sampling on the forums selection level, criterion sampling on the respondents’ replies level and subsequent diversity case sampling as means of collected data reduction. Coding procedures are applied consecutively as follows: open coding, selective coding, theoretical coding, resulting in 29 sets of data produced from 75 pages of raw data. The main findings suggest that key factor determining users’ attitude towards their avatars is the forum thematic. As a result, although overall attitude patterns diversity is rather high, such patterns are consistent and stable within the specific microcosms of individual forums.
Sanal temsil ve çevrimiçi kimlik sorunları internetin kuruluşundan bu yana akademisyenlerin dikkatini çekiyor. Herkese açık, çevrimiçi etkileşim ve araştırmanın ana akışı Facebook, Twitter ve İnstagram gibi sosyal ağlara veya dijital oyunların görsel-işitsel ortamlarına doğru kaymış olsa da, çevrimiçi forumlar hala tematik, daha da profesyonel veya hobi odaklı büyük bir niş işgal ediyor iletişim. Mevcut makale, forum kullanıcılarının kimliğini oluşturmak için kullanılan ana görsel unsurlardan birini, avatarları analiz ediyor: kullanıcıların sanal benliklerini temsil etmeyi seçtikleri küçük (genellikle statik) görüntülenir. Bu araştırmanın odak noktası, kullanıcıların çevrimiçi forumların eşzamansız etkileşimli ortamlarındaki avatarlarına atfettikleri bağlanma derecesi ve anlam türleri üzerinedir. Bu araştırma, temellendirilmiş kuram yaklaşımını uygular ve büyük ölçüde veri toplama ve kodlamanın üçgenleştirilmesine dayanır. Uygulanan örnekleme stratejileri, forum seçim düzeyinde tipik durum örneklemesi, katılımcıların yanıt düzeylerinde ölçüt örnekleme ve toplanan veri azaltma aracı olarak müteakip çeşitlilik örneklemesi kullanılmıştır. Kodlama prosedürleri ardışık olarak aşağıdaki şekilde uygulanır: açık kodlama, seçici kodlama, teorik kodlama, sonuç olarak 75 sayfa ham veriden üretilen 29 veri kümesi elde edilir. Ana bulgular, kullanıcıların avatarlarına karşı tutumunu belirleyen anahtar faktörün forum teması olduğunu göstermektedir. Sonuç olarak, genel tutum kalıpları çeşitliliği oldukça yüksek olmasına rağmen, bu kalıplar bireysel forumların spesifik mikrokosmos içerisinde tutarlı ve stabildir.
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Avatars are growing in popularity and present in many interfaces used for computer-mediated communication (CMC) including social media, e-commerce, and education. Communication researchers have been investigating avatars for over twenty years, and an examination of this literature reveals similarities but also notable discrepancies in conceptual definitions. The goal of this review is to provide a general overview of current debates, methodological approaches, and trends in findings. Our review synthesizes previous research in four areas. First, we examine how scholars have conceptualized the term “avatar,” identify similarities and differences across these definitions, and recommend that scholars use the term consistently. Next, we review theoretical perspectives relevant to avatar perception (e.g., the computers as social actors framework). Then, we examine avatar characteristics that communicators use to discern the humanity and social potential
of an avatar (anthropomorphism, form realism, behavioral realism, and perceived agency) and discuss implications for attributions and communication outcomes. We also review findings on the social categorization of avatars, such as when people apply categories like sex, gender, race, and ethnicity to their evaluations of digital representations. Finally, we examine research on avatar selection and design relevant to communication outcomes. Here, we review both motivations in CMC contexts (such as self-presentation and identity expression) and potential effects (e.g., persuasion). We conclude with a discussion
of future directions for avatar research and propose that communication researchers consider avatars not just as a topic of study, but also as a tool for testing theories and understanding critical elements of human communication. Avatar mediated environments provide researchers with a number of advantageous technological affordances that can enable manipulations that may be difficult or inadvisable to execute in natural environments. We conclude by discussing the use of avatar research to extend communication theory and our understanding of communication processes.
Coding is the core process in classic grounded theory methodology. It is through coding that the conceptual abstraction of data and its reintegration as theory takes place. There are two types of coding in a classic grounded theory study: substantive coding, which includes both open and selective coding procedures, and theoretical coding. In substantive coding, the researcher works with the data directly, fracturing and analysing it, initially through open coding for the emergence of a core category and related concepts and then subsequently through theoretical sampling and selective coding of data to theoretically saturate the core and related concepts. Theoretical saturation is achieved through constant comparison of incidents (indicators) in the data to elicit the properties and dimensions of each category (code). This constant comparing of incidents continues until the process yields the interchangeability of indicators, meaning that no new properties or dimensions are emerging from continued coding and comparison. At this point, the concepts have achieved theoretical saturation and the theorist shifts attention to exploring the emergent fit of potential theoretical codes that enable the conceptual integration of the core and related concepts to produce hypotheses that account for relationships between the concepts thereby explaining the latent pattern of social behaviour that forms the basis of the emergent theory. The coding of data in grounded theory occurs in conjunction with analysis through a process of conceptual memoing, capturing the theorist’s ideation of the emerging theory. Memoing occurs initially at the substantive coding level and proceeds to higher levels of conceptual abstraction as coding proceeds to theoretical saturation and the theorist begins to explore conceptual reintegration through theoretical coding.
Avatars are a key factor for immersion in a consumption experience. Though, little is known about the customer-avatar relationship in a commercial context through time. Two studies were conducted. Findings relate to understanding ongoing avatar personalization, influence of identification on immersion and satisfaction, and the specific identification-immersion relationship throughout time.
Visual chat is a simple way to describe them, although they have gone by a variety of other names, such as multimedia chat, GMUKS (graphical multiuser konversations), and " habitats " , a term coined by Randy Farmer, the first to invent them. They are something of a cross between a MOO and a traditional chat room. As social environments, they are unique in that they are graphical. Rather than limiting users to text-only communications, as in most chat rooms, multimedia programs add a visual dimension that creates the illusion of movement, space, and physicality. It allows people to express their identity visually, rather than just through written words. The result is a whole new realm for self-expression and social interaction with subtleties and complexities not seen in text-only chat rooms. One excellent example of a multimedia environment is the client/server program called the " Palace ". There are basically two visual components to this environment. The first is the backdrop or " room " in which people interact with each other. There are hundreds of Palace sites located across the inter-net, many with their own unique graphical themes for the collection of rooms that make up the site (e.g., a bowling alley, a futuristic Cybertown, a haunted house, etc.). The oldest and one of the most populated sites is the " Main Mansion " (or simply " Main ") which has consisted of approximately 30 rooms, including a bar, a game room, bedrooms, a study, a beach, a moor, and several surrealistic scenes, such as the orbit of an alien planet and an underground cave that looks like Hades. Users can move freely within and between the rooms. Like characters in comic strips, you communicate with others via typed text that appears in balloons that pop out from your head or body. Head? Body? This is the second visual feature of Palace: " avatars " or " props ". Although these words often are used interchangeably, there is a slight distinction in the minds' of some users. Avatars refer to pictures, drawings, or icons that users choose to represent themselves. Props are objects that users may add to their avatars (say, a hat or cigar) or place into the Palace room or give to another person (say, a glass of beer or a bouquet of flowers). In this article, I will use the terms interchangeably. Inspired by Scott McCloud's concept of " masking " in comics, Jim Bumgard-2 ner, the creator of Palace, believed that avatars enable people to maintain partial anonymity – which allows them to loosen up a bit. It's like going to a masquerade party. Seated behind their masks, people feel more free to say and do what they please. No doubt, the avatar-driven lifestyle at the Palace sets up a self-selection process that determines which users decide to stay, and in some cases almost live there. People who love graphics – and especially those who love costumes and masks – often make Palace their home away from home. This anonymity is very different than that found in text-only chat environments , where only the name you have chosen publicizes your online identity. At the Palace, you also have a costume. Wearing a costume at a real-life party does indeed filter out many of the physical features of your identity. You are somewhat " anonymous ". But the costume also symbolically highlights aspects of who you are. It amplifies one of your interests, some facet of your personality or lifestyle, or something you wish for. As we will see, the same is true of avatars in a multimedia community.
Increased interaction with characters in games and online necessitates a better understanding of how different characteristics of these agents impact media users. This paper investigates a possible neurological underpinning for a common research finding; namely, that animated characters designed to be comparatively more human, more real, and more similar to the people they represent elicit more positive self-reported evaluations. The goal of this study was to examine the extent to which these results might be due to differential processing of character features in brain networks recruited for face recognition. There is some evidence that parts of the face network may be specifically tuned for real human faces. An experiment was conducted where subjects viewed photographs of faces of actual agents (humans and animals) or colored drawings of matched agents (cartoon humans and animals). Using fMRI to measure BOLD activation in the whole brain and specifically in the face network, we investigated the variation in patterns of activation with human and animal faces that were more or less real. The results were consistent with previous reports that the core regions of the face network were sensitive to the humanness of faces. However, our results extend previous work by showing that regions of the core and extended regions of the face network – and some regions outside the network – were sensitive to realism, but only realism of human faces.
Unlike traditional media, which frames female athletes in sexualized manners and in socially accepted roles such as mothers and girlfriends, user-controlled social-media Web sites allow female athletes to control the image and brand they wish to portray to the public. Using Goffman’s theory of self-presentation, the current study aimed to investigate how female athletes were portraying themselves via their Twitter avatar pictures. A total of 207 verified Twitter avatars of female athletes from 6 sports were examined through a content analysis. The avatars from each player were coded using the following themes: athlete as social being, athlete as promotional figure, “selfie,” athletic competence, ambivalence, “girl next door,” and “sexy babe.” The results revealed that athletic competence was the most common theme, followed by selfie and athlete as social being. Thus, when women have the opportunity to control their image through social media they choose to focus on their athletic identities.
Protest avatars, digital images that act as collective symbols for protest movements, have been widely used by supporters of the 2011 protest wave, from Egypt to Spain and the United States. From photos of Egyptian martyr Khaled Said, to protest posters and multiple variations of Anonymous' mask, a great variety of images have been adopted as profile pictures by Internet users to express their support for various causes and protest movements and communicate it to all their Internet peers. In this article, I explore protest avatars as forms of identification of protest movements in a digital era. I argue that protest avatars can be described as ‘memetic signifiers’ because (a) they are marked by a vagueness and inclusivity that distinguishes them from traditional protest symbols and (b) lend themselves to be used as memes for viral diffusion on social networks. In adopting these icons, participants experience a collective fusion in an online crowd, whose gathering is manifested in the very ‘masking’ of participants behind protest avatars. These forms of collective identification, while powerful in the short term, can however prove quite volatile, with Internet users often discarding avatars with relative ease, raising the question whether they can provide durable foundational elements of contemporary social movements.
This research focuses on computer-mediated communication where users are represented by a graphical avatar. An avatar represents a user's self-identity and desire for self-disclosure. Therefore, the claim is made that there is a relationship between the characteristics of media and the choice of avatar. This study supports the claim by examining the difference between Internet Relay Chat (IRC) avatars and Instant Messenger (IM) avatars as of 2003 when both media had distinct characteristics and popular avatar service in Korea. Users of IRC are generally anonymous and involved with topic-based group discussions, whereas users of IM are known by their “real” names and communicate via one-on-one chitchatting. We found that avatars as symbols for users can have different characteristics in terms of self-identity and self-disclosure in different media. Gender is found to have significant moderation effect on avatar usage, whereas age is shown to have a mixed moderation effect.