What Teens Want In An Avatar

One of the people I interviewed for the BusinessWeek column I wrote about teens and virtual reality environments (which I'm told will be published next week), was Dr. Sonja Baumer. She had some interesting observations about avatars and their appeal to tweens vs. teens and even young adults. Here's what she wrote:

"In a media methods class that I taught at UCSD I asked my students (19-20 year olds) to do a mini cyberethnography in Habbohotel.com. Most of them complained that they felt kind of 'silly'…. They suggested that the design of avatars was flat and generic, and they could not develop any kind of investment in that. During the discussion they mentioned that they could not really 'author' their avatar identity as it was pre-made and they can only choose among pre-designed sets of hair types/clothes etc…

Below is my take on the question of developmental differences, informed to some degree by developmental theories, still 'under construction' and yet to be systematically examined.

I think there is a crucial difference in which the three groups that you pointed out: (tweens, teenagers and adults) relate to avatars as representations of themselves in virtual spaces. (Here I am not essentilizing those differences as merely developmental and age related, but also account for socio-cultural contexts)

1) For younger children and tweens, identity is encoded mainly (although not exclusively!) through physical appearance. In order to inhabit virtual space they need to inhabit 'physically' through avatars. Thus the very possibility of self representation through an avatar is quite appealing to them (regardless the limited and imperfect quality of such representations!). Thus younger children and tweens emotionally invest in avatars and spend time time choosing clothes/hair styles and improving their representations.

2) In contrast, for adults identity seem to be encoded mostly through symbolic action, e.g.,text, speech, status, money. Thus adults will use avatars but without much of an investment. Consequently the quality of self representation through avatar will not be crucial for their involvement with the media and they will use it anyhow.

3) For teenagers however (and possibly young adults), both physical and symbolic ways of articulating identity are relevant. However, due to the design limitations of most visual chatrooms, there is an imbalance between the 'flatness' of avatars' representation (as is the case in 'Habbohotel') and the sophisticated self representation through symbolic action that teenagers are capable of. Thus, schematic self-representations through avatars feel for teenagers childish and passé."

From Anastasia:

I thought this was interesting in the context of the new that Meez, an avatar site aimed at 13-22 year olds is relaunching with a new design and features later today (they're not quite live yet). It seems like they are working hard to provide the "unflat" non-childish experience older teens may be looking for. From their news alert:

- A compelling new design targeted at Meez.com's core audience — teens and college students.

- 3D interactivity: Users can now have fun exploring the 3D attributes of their Meez by zooming in on and spinning their avatar with the click of a button.

- Enhanced MeezMaker interface: The new automatic zoom enables users to
easily customize facial characteristics such as skin tone and make-up.

- New theme areas allow users to choose and shop for virtual items by any one of over 50 categories: Goth, Military, Football, Anime, Emo, and many more.

Related:

Whyville partners with the CDC to offer virtual flu shots (press release)

Update: Check out Ypulse commenter and blogger Robyn Tippins' post on the Whyville flu.

Another Update: Ypulse reader and blogger Xen Mendelsohn who works on Klonies wrote:

"One of the key attributes of the internet is that users are liberated from their body, age, sex and occupation. For many, this is a major attraction while others loathe the lack of boundaries. Either way, users need to supplement information that otherwise can be gathered easily, like age, sex, personal traits etc'. To do so, users adopt a personal referent that stands for them over the web. It can be a screen name, a user ID number, an email address… Yet many users find that a graphical representation provides a better service for this purpose, especially youth which develop their identity during this period of their lives.

Self-expression is such a key aspect of young people's lives that they would rarely choose a non-branded alternative over an identifiable brand. 98% of teens for example would choose a brand/logo designed T-shirt over a plain one. Since avatars are our representation, we want them to be as close as possible to the way we are, as close as possible to what we wish to be. That is why from consumer's perspective, there is no difference between branded content for avatars to other branded merchandise (clothes, gadgets, cars… you name it). Whatever brands we own in real life we'll probably want to have for our avatars as well.

Also, we've seen in several focus groups that teenagers are very excited to use avatars as their web & mobile representation and would be willing to pay for premium content."

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