Sometimes I actually get to pursue interests outside of biological psychology, and one of my favorite hobbies is the impact of new technologies on behavior. So I jumped at the change to collaborate with Karen on an article for our friends at Good Web Practices. Internet guru David Towers sent us 20 top Digg avatars, and without knowing who or what these represented, Karen and I were supposed to provide our impressions of what they meant. I was supposed to provide the psychologist’s perspective, while Karen, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in Communications, is our resident expert on reputation management.
So What Are We Saying Here?
We agreed on most aspects, but Karen is much more culturally literate than I am. She recognized many of the avatars, but most of them were new to me. In some cases, I felt a bit like I was a participant taking a Rorschach Inkblot Test. One of the Diggers, who uses a spade as his avatar, commented that his only purpose for the choice was to make a joke about “Digg.” Okay, I get it, but one’s choice of an avatar might say more about you than what you intend to say.
At any rate, it was a fun diversion, and what parent doesn’t enjoy an opportunity to collaborate with his/her children?
If you’re interested in learning more about this topic, check out the references at the end of our article, and John Suler’s Psychology of Cyberspace.
2 Comments
nikkinate · October 28, 2008 at 1:10 pm
This study sounds very interesting and seems to provide a lot of insight to an individual given his/her choice of an avatar. Personally, I doubt that I would ever be able to interpret the various avatars and decipher their representations. However, I’m sure this was an excellent “hands on” way to experience one of your favorite hobbies!
Laura Freberg · October 29, 2008 at 11:56 am
It was funny to read the comments. The guy who used the spade avatar said he was just making a joke about “Digg,” but that’s not the point–he is sending a lot of other messages through his choice as well. Some of the comments were a bit nasty, like we were supposed to know the entire field of computer science….I was a bit tempted to challenge one commenter to a test of neuroscience…I think I might win that one! Still it was a lot of fun!
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