Avatarization in Communication

CYBEREmpathy ISSUE 7/2013. Visual Stategies

Jarosław Kinal, Mariola Mróz, Avatarization in Communication

www.CyberEmpathy.com

Source: The samples of the SecondLife's avatars and their real-world counterparts / http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2007/04/speech_avatars_.html

Abstract:

The modern world is characterized by thousands of the visual stimuli, and

the way of its viewing is a part of human activity. The conscious watching

gives the sense to the things we are looking on, so viewing we work out the

social relationships. Different people seeing the same thing react

differently. The same sightseeing is given the different meanings. Weegee

set up the standards of the press journalism; he photographed mostly the

mafia feud and the victims of crime. The meaning of the image is not sole. It

is not included in the image, character. You cannot say that someone reads

the significance of the image correctly or incorrectly. The only thing you can

say in the frames of neo journalism1 1 is the interpretability of our message

(Glowacki 2011).

The impact on the reading of meanings has the individual experience, the

recipient's personal traits and his membership to the particular social

1 In the meaning of neo journalism according to the paradigm of the prof. A.Glowacki

Jarosław Kinal, Mariola Kinal

Avatarization in Communication Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.




group. The science of the communication carried out the years of debate on

the effects of the impact of the media messages. At first it has been spoken

of the all-powerful media, it has been assumed that the media are all-

powerful in the sense that if the message is sufficiently strong and appeals

to the basic human instincts, it will work in a mass scale in the same way for

every reader, every recipient of the media message. There were the

beginnings of the science of communication. Very quickly, the mass

communication researchers have moved away from these points of view.

Then the variety of theories came, known as the theories of the selective

influence. The media experts on the basis of empirical studies have said that

the media in the different way affect the different people, and these

differences are related to the psychological characteristics of recipients. In

the sociological dimension these differences were provoked by belonging to

the different social groups.

The noticed element of interaction on the line: the media and the public, in

the current media system, is avatarization of communication, translated as

dysfunction of the current model of communication.

The attempt to define the phenomenon of avatarization

Accepting the division of the real and virtual reality, we can confidently say

that we call the avatar every personalized and customized actions of a

person in the virtual world, i.e. building a network identity, the

conversations via communicators or chats, the communication with the

help of "the wall" in the social network Facebook etc.

The phenomenon of avatarization has been known for thousands of years.

According to the Hindu theology the avatar is called the incarnation of God,

who descends to the earth as a mortal to restore the order - dharma. The

modern Web developers, many of whom are lively interested in Hinduism,

derived from this theory and proposed that the network society was

recognized not only by IP address, but also by an avatar, which includes the

nickname (Nick) and graphic representational form (usually in the form of

a gif file or JPG).

Today the avatar takes the different forms, as mentioned by Wikipedia,

from small very simplified or symbolic raster graphics, such as appearing in

the messages transmitted on the discussion forums serving for easy

recognition of the registered participants, to very complex three-




dimensional models representing a character in a computer game or the

virtual reality such as Second Life, The Entropia Universe and There

(Wikipedia 2011).

The Avatarization is fitted perfectly into the concept of Walter Ong, who in

his book "The secondary orality" presented the title idea. The author of this

thesis on the following pages of his book proves to the reader the fact that

the twentieth century still was the century, the history of which we read

(we-people), when the twenty-first century is a time in which the story

would have to be told to us. Ong justifies the conclusion of the

contemporary reluctance of human lazed by the media for the “out TV”

knowledge acquisition.

The information highway, where we are now, has its pluses and minuses.

Today's recipients receive infinitely more information than a decade ago,

but the problem arises in the understanding of the information content. To

reinforce the message the modern media build the unreal avatarized world,

where everything is again simple, black and white, and understandable for

the average customer (Andrews 1993).

Participating in the information highway the network user more and more

intuitively receives the nonverbal messages. The avatar may be a bottle of

cola placed as the page background, logo and The Second Life's virtual

character.

Today, following the information highway, the main thing in

communication becomes to receive the attractive visual stimuli served by

the sender. There follows the paradigm - if we learn how to get a better

look, to read the images, we will see more, memorize more. The world

around us becomes more visual in nature. There is talk about the

iconosphere. Some people criticize this term and suggest using the term –

pictosphere - the images as something that shapes us. The media have an

increasing impact on us, and as the media become more visual and

increasingly use the images, we need to know how the visual process runs

and what its effects are. We live increasingly in the reality of images.

According to Aldus Huxley', if we learn to be more careful observers of the

images that arrive to us, to read them carefully, we will see more, learn

more and remember more of what we look at. The Latin term video means

to see, to be endowed with vision, but also to experience something, to

witness, to understand.




According to this paradigm, the most important stimulus becomes a sight

that allows perception of reality – the real and virtual - and allows the

sender to target the image in the way that is most attractive to the recipient.

There are specially created the attractive avatars, which are the simulacra in

a cynical and deliberate way to influence the purchase decisions of the

customers, for example, setting a model of the brand hero of breakfast

flakes in a supermarket.

Returning to the avatarization, there is no way to accept now a conclusion

of J. Derrida, that there is nothing outside the text. Currently, the text is

only a basis for further consideration of the transfer; an increasing role is

played in communication by the context and communication environment,

generally understood as modeling and modifying the environment, in which

a process of the communication is held.

Avatarization and identity

Both in the real and in the virtual world the problem of identity of the

individual is a matter of interest for researchers in the field of the social

communication. They admit that the knowledge of the identity of the

interactive partner is the basis of the mutual agreement (Pistol 1998).

To term it is only possible through the analysis of the external conditions

generated by the other members of the community. The American

sociologist Charles Cooley called this relationship reflected appraisal. Such

reference means both the comparison of yourself with others (which leads

among other things to the development of the personal identity), and

identifying yourself with some groups (which leads to the development of

the social identity) (Grzelak, Jarymowicz 2000).

The interdisciplinarity of the concept of identity enables us to use it in a

variety of the disciplines. Despite the multiplicity of definitions, each of

them refers to its essential meaning. In this way you can get the definitions

of, for example, legal identity and psychological identity. According to the

"Dictionary of the Polish Language" (PWN 1978), the identity (tożsamość)

is the synonymous with oneness (identyczność): being the same and not

something or someone else. The term, however, refers not to the objects

themselves, but to the configuration of features enabling their identification

(recognizing) (PWN 1978). As it is indicated, however, by Mandrosz-

Wróblewska (1988) the identity as a sense of uniqueness and integration in




society gives a sense of integration with the group and becomes the

reference point for the study of other social groups. In the social sciences,

the concept of identity refers to the recognition of people: different

communities and individuals. Determining someone's identity, identifying

someone is based on recognizing his specific attributes, that is, the

distinctive characteristics of a person or group from all others (Grzelak,

Jawryłowicz 2000).

According to the principles of the visual communication the image of face

or other physical characteristics enables a person to identify and assess the

caller. As the W. Węsierski points out: "The identity is expressed through

the attributes specific to the individual. The psychology, however, draws the

attention to the fact that people differ in the perception of what typical for

someone. The disclosure, however, of own physicality enables, in the worst

case makes easier, in most cases, the act of communication."

(http://wesierski.w.interia.pl/magisterka/rozdzial4.htm)

The recognized identity is not only the characteristics of the person or

group, but their perception and their images formed in the mind of the

beholder. This also applies to self-perception. It reflects, as well, on

selective self concentration. The refuted myth of anonymity in the network

realized the need for more intensive validation of the Internet users by

adding the photos, which can be assessed by the community.

Important from the point of view of the space considerations is the fact

that, in the social perception, to recognize someone's identity is not only to

see features that allow you to identify that a man - physically – is this, not

other, person, but to note the features that permit to conclude that the man

- mentally - is this or that kind of person (Grzelak, Jawryłowicz 2000).

At the same time, in the network it is difficult to determine whether the

presented avatar is identical to its real image. Very often the Internet users

authenticate their identity by placing the date of photo recording, the

authors, either by including a formula the "genuine photo", what, on one

hand, presents an ironic context assimilated with the cultural messages; on

the other hand, it is the need to authenticate the individual in the (cyber)

community.

Discussing the identity of the network, you have to mention the

phenomenon of the group identity. It is not always based on such pillars as

the group cohesion, the community of interests, norms and values. It is

http://wesierski.w.interia.pl/magisterka/rozdzial4.htm




rather the resultant of public entity identification. It follows a subjective

sense of community. This is particularly visible in the network. The

community action in groups represents only 1% of all users. In the cyber

community the important concept is "We are elite", which is based on the

categorization process - finding the similarities and differences between the

groups, particularly emphasizing the contrast between the "hard users" and

people lacking the need to develop the information and technology skills.

Very often, both in the real and virtual world the individual has a need for

social categorization. During this process he uses the circulating

stereotypes. As a result of these processes, a person is perceived

"categorically", that is, from the perspective of the characteristics ascribed

to the category, not "personally" - the individual features that are not

recognized. An example of this assertion can be forums for users interested

in the computer games. The individual´s avatar gets the individual ranking,

thanks to the number and meaningfulness of expression, evaluated by the

forum moderator, which place him on the appropriate place in the

hierarchy of this forum. But there the stereotypes appear. When an avatar is

placed as its location the city of Zakopane, Internet users are interested in

receiving the answer to the question in highland dialect "because in Polish

he may not explain himself precisely, and I often visit Zakopane, so I’ll

understand."2 The emergence of the stereotypes, in other words, certain

simplifications in mental perceptions of certain categories of persons,

institutions or events is natural in closed societies. As the Mandrosz-

Wróblewska points (1988), the stereotypes are used to build and protect the

own system of values.

The first interpersonal relationships are the interesting aspect of the

interface concepts of identity and avatarization. As K. Pistol (1998) points

after Nęcki, both sides seek to recognize each other. This "recognition" is

based on the external characteristics such as appearance and behavior,

articulation and voice modulation, and taking into account the stereotypes

about gender, age, cultural affiliation.

Current duality of the worlds is very easy to mention. In the real physical

world the individuals have to deal with the oneness: one body - one

identity. On the contrary it is in the cyberspace - everyone can have as many

"electronic personalities", as he can create.

2 Forum.onet.pl dated 18.04.2011, currently the post is deleted

http://www.cyberempathy.com/#_ftn1




In the physical world many aspects of the identity cannot be created in any

way by the person. They are kind of given by origin and biology. The

communication through the computer networks allows freeing ourselves

from the stereotypes associated with these characteristics. Currently, the

social contacts between the people on both sides of computer require a

large dose of trust. In the world of communication, based solely on the text,

the verbal communication is not the only means of communication, but also

the only means of self-presentation.

The communicational processes in the Internet. The avatarization and anonymity.

Avatarization as a phenomenon of the communication is based on two

contradictions - the need to present the image and anonymity. The human

as a social being tries to develop its position in a social group, he tries to

emphasize his presence, and in the network he does so through his virtual

identity. Often, however, he uses a pseudonym and drawn from the culture

image preventing de facto the recognition of his physical

personality. Necessary is to remember about maintaining the persistence of

the relative anonymity among the Internet users (eg, by using only the

nicknames). This increases the sense of security of the individual and allows

for more openness in interpersonal contacts.

The avatar, as I mentioned in the previous sections, does not necessarily

have the same identity as the physical form of gender, age, and external

features. It is also difficult to determine the motives that guide the

individual in dealing with another individual via the Internet.

However, the relative anonymity coupled with the freedom from many

social norms also has the negative effects, such as increasing in the

aggressive and unacceptable for this type of the communication behavior.

Also it lets hide certain aspects of identity, on one hand it gives freedom

from the stereotypes of gender, race, age, etc., but on the other it leads to

the identity spoofing. The network users may describe themselves as more

attractive, pretend to be experts in the various fields of knowledge, "change"

their sex, and even "impersonate" the other users.

Discouraging are also the steps leading to keeping privacy by the anonymity

in its most extreme form. Lack of the information beyond an avatar with a

picture of the favorite actor leads to inappropriate behavior: the person not




stating his name is more prone to aggression, insults, expressing the

extreme views, offending other users, as he feels unpunished.

At this point, we should also mention the effective communication in its

technical aspect. To make the process of communication successful we

should keep in mind the certain elements:

a) to fill the relay with the information in one time unit,

b) the conditions for the reception, which determine the possibility of the

individual, group, collective or mass reception,

c) the physical characteristics that determine the level of effort that the

recipient must spend to receive media,

d) the technical conditions of media that determine the time of availability

of the media content,

e) the technical conditions that determine the degree of freedom in the

selection of the program by the recipient,

f) the technical characteristics of the relay, which allow to perform other

tasks while receiving (Mikułowski-Pomerania, Nęcki, 1983).

In the first case, when communicating, we should consider the generational

aspect - the recipient in the same unit of time is able to receive the different

amounts of information depending on the relay, which he uses. The

calculations of Richard Meier, published in 1962, show that, reading a book

or newspaper, the recipient gets in one minute 1,500 bits of information,

listening to the radio - only 300 bits, using the spoken lecture - 200 bits.

The current research by PEW Research shows that a person daily

acquires (scans) about 34 Gb per year.

Despite formulated in the 60's by Kurt W. Back argument that where the

sender selects and defines the conditions of the acceptance, there will be a

better pick up, Mikułowski and Nęcki (1983) state that in most cases the

opposite is true, - when the recipient determines the time of the sole and

deliberate reception, his results are better. The argument seems to imply

that in order to be an effective socially the avatar should closely reflect the

preferences of the social group, in which it is located, and reasonably

manage personal presence on the communication platforms such as forums

and social networks.

Hubs of avatarization




The hub that allows the avatarization can be called any virtual spaces, in

which the communication processes occur with the principle of the creation

of the image of both the sender and the recipient.

Worth to be noted is the occurrence of the McLuhan global village

phenomenon, which allows the user to communicate and create his image

through electronic media (McLuhan 2004). The creation through the use of

an avatar allows the elimination of the spatial barriers that is the distance.

One gets the impression of an intimacy despite separating kilometers

(Sieńko 2002). There is also a blurring of the basic barriers resulting from

the aspects of education in one culture. The need of the hierarchy, of the

geographic and demographic breakdowns disappears (Virilio 1991).

The communication platforms, in which a phenomenon of the

avatarization occurs, are inherently limited in the actions and emotions of

the people creating and participating in the communication process.

Analyzing the phenomenon we must also carefully select the places, where

the visual communication processes are maintained in. Namely, as A. Ben-

Zaev writes, we should focus on the platforms next to the users emotionally.

Differently the individual will participate in the communication via

communicator installed in corporation, in which he works (except for the

marginal elements, the phenomenon of avatarization will not occur), but he

will much more actively participate in the creation of his image by using the

social network, on which, in his opinion, he may build the social capital. In

this theoretical approach it is possible to assume that the most popular

hubs of the avatar communication include: the platform Second Life, social

networks and the most popular online forums and the user profiles on

skype and Gadu-Gadu. Below is a short description of the communication

platforms named above.

SecondLife

Second Life is the virtual world created in the Internet, which allows its

users to "simulate" the real processes in the observable reality. Participating

in this world, people form the different types of objects communicating

with each other and establishing the social relationships. Practically, there

are no limits on the spatial aspects of the world - the possibility of its

expansion is limited only by the availability of the servers and creativity of

its users.

It is one of the few virtual worlds, which can be said that the promotion of




the participation in this world has been applied by the rule of snowball. The

representatives of the company managing the virtual world uses for

promotion the interest kindled by this platform in the real world. The

popularization of this avatarized world is being developed starlike – the

Internet users draw their friends, and those draw the following ones. The

simplicity of a solution and its very high potential has attracted nearly 10

million people around the world, from which nearly 500 thousand regularly

use SL3.

Their presence, in turn, generates the interest of various institutions: in SL

“offices” were installed by the hundreds of different companies (many of

which are the strongest global brands) and public institutions (especially

universities). Own "representations" in SL have been installed by the

companies such as Cisco, IBM, Toyota, Pontiac, Adidas and the

universities: Cambridge, Oxford and MIT. Some countries opened their

embassies in it (eg Sweden), the Reuters have also its office here, and most

recently Society of Jesus’ representatives have also "settled" here.

It worth to be noted, that SL is not just another online computer game

network. Something that distinguishes it from the environments like

WorldOfWarCraft (offering very similar functionality) is the lack of

common rules for the games, in particular, the need for competition (with

the system or other players), skill levels, etc. The purpose of SL is to provide

an environment enabling for users to create, above all, the objects or places,

to communicate and to "travel". So there is definitely more of a virtual

world than a game.

The entrance to the SL is possible through the registration on the

website www.secondlife.com and installing a free client application shared

there. The first step necessary to participate in this virtual world is to create

an avatar, or form that will be taken in SL. After a few minutes (so it may

take to create a simplest digital form) comes time for about 10 minutes

optional e-learning training, after which the participant has the basic skills

necessary to live in the SL: movement, communication with others, moving

between different areas and search of the people, events or places

interesting for us.

Analyzing the initial content, it is possible to say of some regularity. The

avatars are notably better own reflections of the reality. Typically the older

3 According to data from 2009

http://www.secondlife.com/




people rejuvenate themselves, smooth skin. The younger people give

themselves looks better suited to the prevailing trends in fashion. Also

notable is the fact of increasing their height among the users of the virtual

world.

Pic1. The samples of the SecondLife's avatars and their real-world

counterparts

The world of SecondLife also allowed the election campaigns among the

avatars. The precursors of this type of activity are two world-class

politicians - Nicolas Sarkozy and Barack Obama. The first during the

presidential campaign launched his electoral office, where the citizens could

ask questions, get acquainted with the program of Sarkozy and leave their

comments and suggestions. Then during the presidential campaign Barack

Obama went even further, basing his campaign on the means of political e-

marketing, including to the actions activity in Second Life. In addition to

the election office he also enabled the direct meetings with voters. He also

used virtual world for soliciting donations for the election campaign.




Pic2 The electoral office of Nicolas Sarkozy in the world of Second Life.

Source: Google

In view of the growing popularity of the virtual world the state

administration has also reacted: Thanks to the U.S. Congressman George

Miller the Cyber Capitol was built in “Second Life” . With the avatar of the

Capitol in the world of Second Life, users can get familiar with this historic

building, as well as the principles of the American laws. Another example is

the opening of the virtual embassy of Sweden. The virtual representation is

to promote Sweden among the users from all over the world. The

ambassador’s avatars will provide the information about the attractions and

Swedish visa rules to the potential tourists. In turn, Germany was first to

create in "SL" something no one else has thought before, - the job agency

(Wiadomości24.pl).

Social Media

This term may be used for the media available primarily in the Internet

and on the mobile devices, enabling the exchange of information between

users. It's the media that combine the technology, the telecommunications,

and the social interactions with image, text and sound. The way of

interaction and presentation of the information depends on the point of

view of users and the content exchanged by the community (the stories and

experiences). For businesses the social media are a valuable source of the

user-generated content, called UGC (User-generated content or Consumer

Generated Media (CGM) (kursusability.pl).

This media significantly activate and force their users to interact with each

other. In Poland the most important social networks are Facebook and

Nasza-Klasa.

Facebook is a social service that allows users creating social networks and

realizing in their frames interactions such as sharing news, content

creation, use of dedicated applications. The project was launched on

February 4, 2004 at Harvard University and was initially supposed to be a

communication platform for students of secondary schools and universities,

which it originally was.




Nasza-Klasa is a social network, but of a regional character. It allows users

to find their friends from school. Currently, the portal started resembling in

nature the universal social networks, enabling the creation of a fully

customized profile.

Both of these portals are characterized by the following features of the

media (as Dominic Kaznowski states):

• Informative, as they publish the fresh information (news) and the

comments and feedbacks to them in a linear way

• Entertaining, because they provide a nice way to spend your free time.

Moreover, as indicated by the author of this classification, in opposition to

the traditional media they provide a combination of these functions while

using them. In addition, they provide the open access to the content and do

not only allow the creation of messages (in the form of a text called post),

but they also offer the possibility of the image creation of the author. This

creation is based on the content presented by him, as well as with the

support of the fans in the form of comments, opinions, and function of

content sharing on own profile. This creates a tremendous opportunity of

the avatarization of own personality. Returning to the theory of neo

journalism (Głowacki 2011) we can notice a shift in the content of

comments, partly they are reactions on the shared photographs, and

written opinions are subjective, often supported by elements of irony.




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9. Mucha J. Cooley. Warsaw: Common Knowledge, 1992

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http://networkeddigital.com/

11. Wikipedia, www.wikipedia.org

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Avatarization in Communication