Avatar
Definition
Online, many people can connect only through the avatar, or miniature pictorial representation of the self. Avatars have become placeholders for bodies that exist far away from each other.
Online, individuals can act as companies through branding themselves through text and a photo. Similarly, a business can represent itself as an individual through a friendly, approachable avatar. On social networks, says Kathryn Everest, “pictures have become essential -- especially facial representations that are positive. It is completely how people connect as people -- especially as we’re becoming more virtual. It removes us from being just a database record". Thus, an avatar has become not only a placeholder for the body, but also a placeholder of meaning. People are more likely to trust human photos on social networking sites rather than logos, and all have higher acceptance rates.
History
Avatars are what portraits were to royalty in making allegiances by marriage. A portrait artist would spend a long time on a commissioned portrait of someone and send it off to another country. Of course, these portraits were often much more flattering than the person looked in real life, so both parties often surprised each other when they finally met for the first time during the marriage ceremony.
The term Avatar was first used to describe a placeholder or extension of identity by Chip Morningstar and Joseph Romero when they built Habitat, an online role-playing game, at LucasFilm. Now, people are clicking and dragging their lives into existence.
