We Are the Avatar Generation

As my good friend once said,

We are the avatar generation.

It really couldn’t be more true, could it? I mean, we are the first generation to even have dedicated folders on our local systems that house our possible digital avatars, right?

(Please admit that I’m not the only one…)

Sure, we have services like Automattic’s Gravatar that helps create these automatically via email addresses but when I sign up for a new service I like to choose just the right one for the new web service. It even gives me an opportunity to create a new one as well.

I was organizing them this morning by year and I realized that this is truly a signal of our unique online culture and perspective on the world.

We are more involved in creating digital selves than any other generation before us. We care about how we “look” and how we present ourselves and want to make sure that we can contextualize that perception based on this social network and that social network.

Perhaps I’m more obsessed with this than most people because I’m clearly a netizen through and through but does anyone else feel me on the “avatar folder”? How many do you have and do you agonize over which one to upload when you signup for that new web service? How many times do you change out your avatar on such services like Facebook or Twitter?

Or is this just another pointless issue related to our overly-stimulated culture? I can concede to that possibility.