i love being an avatar. many people love what their avatar means to them. for most people, there is a deep connection with that little you running around in-world (ener <– often runs in circles, hands in the air, screaming) =D

research reveals what you and i already know (gee, imagine that!)

Researchers at Concordia University in Canada report in the journal Psychology and Marketing that online avatars usually reflect the personality of their creators.

*so proud to be Canadian – hey, wait, was that with my tax dollars?* =p

the way i see it, what other personality could you reflect?

i know you can fake to be something that you are not in real life, but that can only go so far and be carried out for so long

if you can be all fake in real life, then you can be all fake as a virtual world avatar or a screen name in a forum. but that is your personality isn’t it?

sure, you can be a furry or a gender bender, but even as a tiny beaver it is still you, just an online expression of who you really are (not that you are a furry, but that it embodies aspects of you as a person – warm and fuzzy or cute and prickly or big and bad)

what is an avatar after all? is it really that different than anything else we identify ourselves with?

i tend to think of Ener Hax as more “me” than i am in real life. that may sound weird but i had more to do in choosing my avatar’s name than i did in choosing my real name. and with the veil of the web, i feel more free to actually express my feelings (what? ener unfiltered?) =p