Will you have a persistent avatar across all your social networks and virtual environments ? Why or why not?The whole point about avatars is that they are 'bits' of what you are. Part of each is truth and part is fiction. If you are going to get anything out of avatars you must be prepared to live outside of your current consciousness.
That does not mean that you need to abandon your current moral compass or that you cannot still use 'bits' of you that are useful with whomsoever you are talking to but to be someone else challenges who you think you are and that must always be good.
People at the other side of the exchange are aware that what you are saying may or may not be a true or accurate picture of what you want to express - and you know that about them.
When I was selecting my avatar in second life, the alternatives did not include anyone I could relate to. The figures were just not real (just like your avatar name choice) and perhaps this is the point. You need to see the avatar as an extension of who you are not a true representation. I certainly do not want to have the same avatar in all the social networking sites. From a programming point of view, this seems impossible anyway but even in real life people live their lives out in a variety of roles.
In my own life I am a teacher, husband, student, artist, farmer, musician, writer, son and uncle. In each of these roles, I play roles with different characteristics and behaviours. In each of these roles, I have a different degree of success and depending on the amount of success, I have a different demeanor. If I am successful, I appear calmer and in more control. If I am less successful, I am more stressed and erratic. I play a different role when I am a teacher from when I am a student at CSU.
It seems futile to try and pretend in cyberspace that I am a complex person that can manage all of these facets when I could just split myself up into many different personas (each with a different avatar) and 'be' a different person depending on the role, environment and desired outcome.
This my CSU student persona signing off.
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