Avatars


 * Avatar is a character that you can personalize and use when interacting with friends online**. By changing hairstyles, clothes, accessories, and backgrounds, you can create your own unique persona.

Not all avatars are the same, they indulge in elaborate alternative lives full of flamboyant rants, public displays of sorrow and ultimately, solidarity and communion with the avatars that read, comfort and affirm them and their experiences through interactive forums.
 * An avatar is usually a caricature, headshot or full body, and sometimes it is animate**d. The origins of the term can be traced to 1980’s era video games, which used the term to represent the presence of the player within the actual video game view. Avatars are very much native to the Internet.

An example of Avatars

[|avatarexaples.jpg] Avatar example taken from [|http://typophile.com/node/41517]

Avatars are the pictures underneath the user's name. It is used as a personal identification in the forum/online discussion. Avatars are unique to the user and can be anything they want it to be. From a person, cartoon, type, shape anything and depending on the topics of the forum avatars can be associated with the forums topics or be completely random.

This is another example of avatars. This is taken from the website Flickr, where users are able to upload photography and comment on other peoples pieces of work. The avatars here are used to represent the person who is commenting on a photo. Everyone on the site is able to use a different image to represent themselves. So on this site, not only is the persons user name showing, but there is an image, also called an avatar, that as well represents the individual.

Links related to Avatars: http://secondlife.com/whatis/avatar.php < Very cool, deals with personal reflection and identification in a 3D enviroment. almost like the SIMS video game but more creative and expressive for the user. http://www.avatarist.com/ < a resource of avatars to use.

References: Added by: ginadelis
 * Conway, Christopher . "Professor Avatar." __Inside Higher Ed__. 16/10/07. 7 Jan 2008 <[|http://insidehighered.com/views/2007/10/16/conway>.]
 * "What is an avatar and how do I use it?." __Yahoo Messenger__. 16/10/07. Yahoo. 7 Jan 2008 <[|http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/messenger/mac/mac3/entertainment/entertainment-01.html>.]