By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
SmartData CollectiveSmartData Collective
  • Analytics
    AnalyticsShow More
    data Analytics instagram stories
    Data Analytics Helps Marketers Make the Most of Instagram Stories
    15 Min Read
    analyst,women,looking,at,kpi,data,on,computer,screen
    What to Know Before Recruiting an Analyst to Handle Company Data
    6 Min Read
    AI analytics
    AI-Based Analytics Are Changing the Future of Credit Cards
    6 Min Read
    data overload showing data analytics
    How Does Next-Gen SIEM Prevent Data Overload For Security Analysts?
    8 Min Read
    hire a marketing agency with a background in data analytics
    5 Reasons to Hire a Marketing Agency that Knows Data Analytics
    7 Min Read
  • Big Data
  • BI
  • Exclusive
  • IT
  • Marketing
  • Software
Search
© 2008-23 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: You and Your Avatars
Share
Notification Show More
Aa
SmartData CollectiveSmartData Collective
Aa
Search
  • About
  • Help
  • Privacy
Follow US
© 2008-23 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
SmartData Collective > Data Management > Culture/Leadership > You and Your Avatars
CommentaryCulture/LeadershipData VisualizationTransparency

You and Your Avatars

StephenBaker1
Last updated: 2011/07/07 at 12:34 PM
StephenBaker1
4 Min Read
SHARE

If you and I talk on our cell phones, we’re actually not speaking with each other, but with each other’s avatar. The real you is where your body is. The “you” that I experience is a digital representation of your voice. Through the conditioning of the modern age, we’ve come to associate these strings of numbers with ourselves and each other. But still, as U.C.

If you and I talk on our cell phones, we’re actually not speaking with each other, but with each other’s avatar. The real you is where your body is. The “you” that I experience is a digital representation of your voice. Through the conditioning of the modern age, we’ve come to associate these strings of numbers with ourselves and each other. But still, as U.C. Santa Barbara professor Jim Blascovich explained at a talk I attended, we increasingly deal with each other’s avatars. This trend is not going to slow down.

So it might make sense to put more thought into the avatars we create. After all, they’re going around the world representing us. For many people, they are us. In fact, it’s safe to say that most of the heavy lifting in our personal and professional relationships will be carried out through avatars, and that traditional person-to-person dealings will something of a boutique offering.

You could argue that the longstanding avatar in the professional world has been the resume. Each one is a representation of a person. The difference, though, is that if the resume does its job, the company calls in the flesh-and-bones for an interview. The resume represents people but does not stand in for them.

More Read

data visualization for small business

Data Visualization Boosts Business Scalability with Sales Mapping

5 Best Practices for Extracting, Analyzing, and Visualizing Data
10 Important Ways Data Visualization Can Benefit Your Content Strategy
How to Bring Presentation Data to Life with Powered Template
From Raw Data to Visualization: Marvel Social Graph Analysis

Now, though, our avatars are asserting themselves. Consider the most prominent ones many of us have: our profiles on social networks and dating sites. They represent the public (and semi public) faces of more than a billion people. Each one is optimized for branding. While the explicit message is “This is me” the truth, as in all of our dealings, is more complex: “This is what I want you to think of when you think about me.” Some of them, like the voice on a bad cell phone connection, barely resemble the person. But they’re out there interacting. As far as many people are concerned, those profiles are us.

What goes on with avatar is like theater, where one person represents a role and the other people–the audience–make use of the endlessly adaptive human brain to accept and experience it as “truth.” With cell phones, we do it unconsciously. But really, accepting that buzzing, crackling noise as a human voice requires patience and creativity on the part of the listener. (Try talking on a cell phone to your dog. My guess: she’ll run away from it.)

I’ve been thinking a lot about avatars, because I’ve been writing a book–a novel–in which they play a big role. I’ll write more about the book later.

StephenBaker1 July 7, 2011
Share This Article
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn
Share

Follow us on Facebook

Latest News

smart home data
7 Mind-Blowing Ways Smart Homes Use Data to Save Your Money
Big Data
ai low code frameworks
AI Can Help Accelerate Development with Low-Code Frameworks
Artificial Intelligence
data Analytics instagram stories
Data Analytics Helps Marketers Make the Most of Instagram Stories
Analytics
data breaches
How Hospital Security Breaches Devastate Local Communities
Policy and Governance

Stay Connected

1.2k Followers Like
33.7k Followers Follow
222 Followers Pin

You Might also Like

data visualization for small business
Data Visualization

Data Visualization Boosts Business Scalability with Sales Mapping

7 Min Read
big data visualization
Data Visualization

5 Best Practices for Extracting, Analyzing, and Visualizing Data

6 Min Read
Data Visualization
Data Visualization

10 Important Ways Data Visualization Can Benefit Your Content Strategy

13 Min Read
Data Visualisation
Data Visualization

How to Bring Presentation Data to Life with Powered Template

8 Min Read

SmartData Collective is one of the largest & trusted community covering technical content about Big Data, BI, Cloud, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, IoT & more.

AI and chatbots
Chatbots and SEO: How Can Chatbots Improve Your SEO Ranking?
Artificial Intelligence Chatbots Exclusive
AI chatbots
AI Chatbots Can Help Retailers Convert Live Broadcast Viewers into Sales!
Chatbots

Quick Link

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Follow US
© 2008-23 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Go to mobile version
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?