Tedx Talks — Hello Avatar: Your Networked Life

According to Beth Coleman, professor of writing and new media at MIT, the virtual identity, while a source of entertainment for gamers and movie viewers, is also an incredibly powerful tool. The ability to dive into alternate realities, she said, provides us with opportunities for widespread influence and change.

The concept of the avatar originates from the Sanskrit word meaning “to cross over, to descend, to go from a high spirit into a bodily form,” Coleman said. Indeed, gamers immersed in the interactive online game “Second Life” take godlike control over their virtual circumstances. “In this virtual world,” she said, “you could literally make castles, you could fly, you could have dance parties, you could make a feast,” she said. “Because it was virtual, there were no material limitations.  And that’s a magic moment.”

The problem arises when people stop there, not fulfilling these platforms’ potential for purposes. “It’s not good enough to bury yourself deep in a box and get lost in a virtual world,” she said. She urged people to use their “ubiquitous” and “pervasive” technology to spread ideas that could better society.

“You can scatter your bits across the world, and somehow you, the things that you believe in and you’re passionate about — somehow they emerge.”