Avatars and the Online World

      For the reading on pages 121-126, I read about avatars and how they relate to their creators.  It discusses how some people choose to represent themselves through their avatars, while some people choose to display themselves as something totally different.  Three people from various places were shown as examples.  Jason, the first example, is a handicap who uses a storm trooper as his avatar due to the fact that some of the qualities it has resemble him.  One of these qualities is the way that they both communicate, which is with a keyboard.  His main reason that he chose his avatar was because he wanted to be viewed the same as every other gamer.  Rebecca, the second example, uses an opposite gender so she will not be stereotyped for being female in the gaming world.  And Cassien, the third example, also uses an opposite gender, a blonde female, to receive things from other players online and to be involved in people's groups even though he is not a very good player.
      I think it's interesting how people can choose to represent themselves online in this way.  Everyone can choose whether or not they want to make themselves accepted by making themselves appeal to what people want to see, or they can simply try to represent themselves as they are in real life.  One thing that I think is cool is that people online don't know if you are representing yourself as you truly are or not.  It is all up to the creator to decide what he wants to do with his/her avatar and how it will be incorporated with online reactions.  Considering online gaming, this definitely can be a positive for people that are skilled, while it can also be a positive for people who don't even know how to play a certain game.
     Personally, the main form that I present myself online is through Facebook.  On Facebook, I present myself as I am, but I don't display information that is very personal.  I would rather people see me as myself and know who they are communicating with.  I would say with Facebook, this is what most people want to do (otherwise it goes against the point of having a Facebook in my knowledge).
     In the classroom, we can all relate to avatars due to the fact that we need to see each other as equal.  We shouldn't judge people by their appearance and we should respect the opinions and ideas of others.  This relates brilliantly to the whole theme of avatars.