Journal of Media Critiques [JMC]
doi: 10.17349/jmc114311
P-ISSN: 2056-9785
E-ISSN: 2056 9793
http://www.mediacritiques.net
[email protected]
A SEMIOTIC READING OF DIGITAL AVATARS AND
THEIR ROLE OF UNCERTAINTY REDUCTION IN
DIGITAL COMMUNICATION
SERCAN ŞENGÜN∗
ABSTRACT
This study tries to explain the role of digital avatars for communication in two distinct ways.
In the first part it debates what kinds of meanings avatars have for their users. To answer this
question based on semiotic theories of Saussure and Lacan, a new approach will be proposed.
Saussure’s theory of signs and Lacan’s theory of chain of signifiers as an entry for self, will be
merged to form a new viewpoint. In the second part, the role of avatars in the digital
communication for the receivers will be approached by Berger’s uncertainty reduction theory.
Keywords: Avatar, Saussure, Lacan, Berger, Semiotics, Uncertainty Reduction Theory
INTRODUCTION
In his 1984 novel Neuromancer, the renowned science-fiction author William
Gibson used the term cyberspace for the very first time (Benedikt, 1991, p.31), to
define virtual digital spheres that had emerged with the online communication
technologies. This portrayal of the digital world as a virtual space was especially
important since it opened up new possibilities to read and evaluate these digital
nascencies. Anders, on the other hand, offered to name them multi-user environments
(Anders, 1999, p.119) to call attention to the social communications that were taking
shape within these domains, thus extending cyberspaces into social arenas. Wakeford
divides online spaces into three categories; information spaces (mostly websites),
communication spaces (mostly referring to asynchronous communication such as
forums and newsgroups) and interaction spaces (mostly referring to synchronous
communication such as chatrooms) (Wakeford, 1996, p.95). Although not associated
in her definition it is possible to assume that communication and interaction spaces
could be accepted as more relevant to cyberspaces than information ones.
Today, the term cyberspace or virtual space has an even larger scope; it may
extend to digital business applications, online services, online education and ecommerce websites, as well as social media domains, sites with instant messaging
∗
[email protected], Istanbul Bilgi University
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and, of course, multiplayer video games. The definition of these digital spheres as
spaces, combined with underlining their social and communicative power, led to the
question of assessing how individuals manifested within and traversed through these
environments. When digital spheres signified physical spaces, users of these spheres
also needed digital bodies to represent their actions taken within them; which in turn
brought forth the rise of the term; avatar. This study aims to assess two different
connections of avatars from two different perspectives; firstly, the connection between
an avatar and its user from a semiotic perspective and secondly how avatars could
affect the online communication with others from the perspective of uncertainty
reduction. In even simpler terms, what meanings could an avatar convey for its user
and for the other users of the cyberspace.
The term avatar is originated from a religious context of Hinduism, and the Sanskrit
origin of the word defines the worldly apparitions of divine beings (Partridge, 2005,
p.148). Inside the digital context however, an avatar could said to be the
representative of an individual / a user within a virtual space. According to Meadows,
avatars are created according to the interactivity of the space with the user and may
represent different world perspectives much as people themselves do (Meadows, 2008,
p.13). Avatars may come in different sizes and shapes; they could simply be profile
images used in a social media platform or advanced animated character models inside
a video game. The said image may be an actual photo of an individual, a drawing
loosely based on the individual or may be of a totally different context that the user
chose to represent oneself. The said animated character may represent or look like the
person in the real world, yet most of the time it will be a mixture of the fantastic, the
idealistic, the funny and the curious. Each virtual space may encourage the individual
to create a different avatar – the user can embrace a default avatar and replicate the
features of his or her default avatar within each of these virtual spaces or create a
totally different one in each case. It seems almost impossible to determine how many
avatars exist in the online world, or find out the average number of avatars a modern
individual owns. An avatar is a construct and in many cases it is only loosely based on
the individual who created it on a physical level, but may have stronger ties with him
or her on the mental level.
These inferences push the realm of the digital avatars into an uncanny one, in
which a correlation between the avatar and the user it represents, essentially do not
need to exist or could simply be arbitrary (which in turn may seem to contradict the
representative reason of its existence in the first place). Given that each virtual space
has its own rules, system and archive for avatars, the chaos exacerbates. Initiatives
like Gravatar – globally recognized avatars (Gravatar, 2014) – fall short on providing
solutions to such issues, yet the question of whether this is really an issue to be solved
or not, is also a valid one. On this note, a feasible initial judgment would be that
avatars are exponentially increasing entities in the digital world and while single signon (SSO) technologies that utilize Facebook and Google user information are being
deployed more and more frequently recently (Wang et al., 2012, p.365), avatars seem
to be an online communication sub-medium that are here to stay for a long time.
As in many other communication mediums, avatars also construct a new kind of
language that requires a different kind of literacy, and as the portion of digital life
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grows bigger within the social experience, it becomes immediate to be literate about
them. To initiate and maintain a communication in a multi-user environment with other
avatars, a user has to have an idea of what kind of information can an avatar carry
and convey, as well as the possible implications that his or her own avatar generates
for the other users. One would also need to keep in mind that this information may
change according to each virtual space experienced, as each avatar system may
expand, constrict or rediscover this language. Then, it seems possible to talk about a
general language of avatars as well as a specific language for each virtual space a
different avatar system is used in. Proceeding from this conclusion a semiotic approach
to digital avatars is seemingly in need.
A SEMIOTIC READING FOR DIGITAL AVATARS
Austrian linguist Saussure identified the two main components of a sign (be it a
word, an image, or further in this case an avatar) as the signifier (the actual sign itself)
and the signified (the mental image that has been associated with the sign, whether
personally or communally) (Saussure & Harris, 1998, p.65). If the binding between
the signifier and the signified occurs for the receiver of a message, just as intended by
the sender, this result is called a signification. In this light digital avatars can also be
accepted as signifiers of real personalities (signified). If the created/chosen avatar can
reflect a personality trait to another user that was intended by the owner/creator of
the avatar then this could emerge as a case of successful signification. Saussure also
underlined the arbitrary nature of this relation between the signifier and the signified
in language, such as the word dog having no actual relation with the animal image it
summons to mind and “neither the sounds nor their written form bears any relation to
the thing itself” (Crow, 2010, p.17). However the arbitrariness of the relation seems
unsound within the avatar formula. The choices made by a user in creating an avatar,
could said to be operative at the least under the subconscious level. Then the creation
of an avatar could hardly said to be arbitrary. To explain this, it is possible to think
about avatars in the light of identity. Donath points out that “in the disembodied world
of the virtual community, identity is also ambiguous” (Donath, 1999, p.29). Online
identities are products of visual or written language, and they are built upon
assumptions of individuals that they have (or do not have) about themselves. As
Rheingold puts it;
“We reduce and encode our identities as words on a screen, decode and unpack
the identities of others. The way we use these words, the stories (true or false) we tell
about ourselves (or about the identity we want people to believe us to be) is what
determines our identities in cyberspace.” (Rheingold, 1993, s.61)
Thus it seems important to point out that; the creation of an avatar seems hardly
arbitrary yet the relation between what an avatar represents and who owns it could
very well be. In the virtual space individuals can try on different identities, assume
several identities all at the same time, and act as a member of the opposite sex or a
member of a different race. In this case the signified becomes not the individual’s
oneself but an expression of an unexplored, imagined, emulated or even an aspired
aspect of oneself. This in turn can mean that, an individual can embody many signified
identities much like multiple signifiers (avatars). This is conflicting with Saussure’s
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linguistic model in which “[signifier and signified] are intimately united, and each
recalls the other” (Manghani et al., 2006, p.106). For avatars, the mentioned
unification works only one-way. The avatar is united with the user but the user can
own and operate many avatars. Turkle identifies this contradicting identities as a lucid
definition of our lives after the virtual divide (Turkle, 1995, p.185).
To dig deeper inside the relation between online identities, avatars and Saussure’s
model, one can talk about Lacan’s observations of Saussure’s linguistic approach. For
Lacan “the signified is not the things in their raw state, already there, given in an order
open to meaning” (Lacan, 1997, p.114). So for Lacan the signified is also symbolic and
the signifier is nothing more than the imaginary (p.56). Avatars are identity constructs
that represent identities that are also constructs themselves – they are the shadows of
shadows. Lacan expands the Saussurian model into a form which could discuss this
issue;
“From which we can say that it is in the chain of the signifier that the meaning
‘insists’ but that none of its elements ‘consists’ in the signification of which it is as the
moment capable.” (Lacan, 1986, p.743)
Thus, the relation between signifier and the signified is not ultimate. As soon as the
signified emerges it becomes a signifier for another signified. Then the Saussurian
model may said to be not of a dual and finite nature but could be more like a chain, in
which “a representation of reality always refers to another representation of reality”
(Bell, 2003, p.3). What this may mean for the concept of avatars is that the relation
between signifier and signified could very well transform into a feedback and a
possible loop between an avatar and its user. As “films and video games often invite
spectators to identify with an onscreen character or perspective in an act of voluntary
misrecognition” (p.5), so does virtual worlds require its users to identify with a digital
avatar. As the avatar signifies the person, so does the person start to signify the
avatar in time – the person creates the avatar and begins to (or fails to) transform into
it. The avatar and the user initiate a feedback-loop, the border between the signifier
and the signified becomes blurred. For example recent study on Facebook profiles
suggest that, these profiles are actually happier, more interesting, more fun and more
intelligent constructs (versions) of real persons and not signifiers of their real selves at
all, which in turn may make both other users (friends) and even the profile owners
unhappy (Kross et al., 2013, p.4) (Chou & Edge, 2011, p.119). The profile owner
compares his or her self to the profile (tries and fails to transform into it) as well as
others compare their symbolic life’s to the life of an imaginary construct. It is
important to note here that this study recognizes the term avatar in a broader term in
this case; the avatar in question is not simply the profile picture of a user in Facebook,
but the half-symbolic, half-imaginary other self he or she has constructed within this
social network. As the user (signified) created the Facebook avatar (signifier), the
avatar became more than the signifier of the user’s self, it became a signifier of
another signified self that does not exist and which the user in turn aspires to became
a signifier for. When a Facebook friend of a user meets him or her in the real, the user
suddenly becomes the signifier for this more interesting and more fun imaginary
persona (signified).
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Yet all is not so troublesome; as González-Campo observes the intermediation of
the virtual world that reduces the symbolic (body) to the imaginary (avatar) “is able to
open spaces to the subject to become more individual according to its will” (GonzálezCampo et al., 2013, p.320). Thus, the imaginary could become more intimately
constructed than the symbolic – the avatar can become a more intimate construct of
self than the physical self itself. Lacan also observes that “other is the one who sees
me” (Lacan, 1992, p.19) and through this gaze one feels the desire which cannot be
fully realized in the physical. However in the virtual the user has the ability to create
infinite linguistic representation of his or her self and fulfill each desire by phasing into
the avatar and matching the gaze.
The combination of the offered arguments so far could mean that avatars could
both be instruments of discovery and therapeutic processes as well as possess the
potential to have disrupting properties on the idea of self. To create a digital entity
that could represent the self, may initiate the process of contemplating about the self,
and this process have the potential to become disrupting/revealing because;
“[…] The process of becoming an adult, a ‘self’, is the process of trying to fix, to
stabilize, to stop the chain of signifiers so that stable meaning--including the meaning
of ‘I’--becomes possible.” (Klages, 2014)
Having and maintaining digital avatars inside the virtual blurs this defined process
even for adults – it reinitiates the signifier chain, delegitimizes the symbolic self by
bringing forth the desired, and the emerged imaginary self(es) feedbacks and
eventually alters the symbolic self.
As a result this study wants to expand on the Saussurian (see Figure 1) and
Lacanian (see Figure 2) model of signification, inside the virtual world and in terms of
digital avatars (see Figure 3).
Figure 1. In the Saussurian model the signified and the signifier, the concept and
the sound-image are a perfect couple that are united and refer to each other.
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Figure 2. However in the Lacanian model the signification is a chain and could
seemingly be endless. Each signification is a beginning of another signification. Within
this chain, the emergence of the self could only be obtained by the conscious limiting
or ceasing of the chain of signifiers.
Figure 3. With the emergence of avatars, both Saussurian and the Lacanian models
could be merged to compose a new model. In this new model, the self begins as a
signified. By looking at the other, the self generates desire to try out other personas,
which manifest as avatars. As infinite number of avatars form, the avatars affect back
the self and initiate an alteration, which in turn starts the whole process over again.
This study then proposes that avatars are not really signifiers of their users but
signifiers of what their users desire (of possessing or not possessing traits they actually
have, don’t have or presume that they have) by looking at the other. In this light,
avatars that were intended to represent people in virtual spaces in the first place,
eventually transformed into entities which cannot really represent symbolic selves, but
imaginary constructs instead. To explain the nature of these constructs one might turn
to Peirce who defined the self as “a dialogue between different phases of the ego”
(Peirce, 1993, p.6) – then avatars could be defined as different expressions or
outbursts of a dialogue between the self and the other. Naturally this phenomenon did
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not emerge with the digital; individuals could always try to change their appearances,
modify their physical bodies and act or role-play as different personas, yet agreeably
this was more limiting and in some cases risky (legally and socially) in the symbolic.
The digital space however offers individuals (and in some cases, more than offer;
invite them to) this opportunity in a less risky and more resourceful way.
DIGITAL AVATARS AND THEIR FUNCTION IN UNCERTAINTY REDUCTION
In a recent study it has been found that easier to pronounce names promote more
believability than hard to pronounce names (Newman et al., 2014, p.3). Since avatars
are usually associated with textual usernames, this study may prove to be a relevant
basis for virtual spaces, too. In virtual environments users may be exposed to the
usernames of other users before meeting/seeing their avatars (this is especially valid
for video game worlds, where users are continually exposed to avatars names in chat
windows before seeing the virtual avatars themselves).
Similar results are also available in visual research. In a study about a virtual card
game, Sakamoto concludes that well-known virtual characters “provoke our
empathetic feelings easily anytime and anywhere” (Sakamoto et al., 2013, p.168). In
another experimental research Nowak and Rauh generates specially created avatars
that have different ranges of androgyny and anthropomorphism (Nowak & Rauh, 2008,
p.1481). In the anthropomorphist front, online users with avatars that are human have
found out to be more credible than animal avatars with human features, which in turn
found out to be more credible than animal avatars (p.1488) (see Figure 4).
Figure 4. According to the research of Nowak and Rauh, the credibility of avatars
decreased from left-to-right.
In the androgyny front, male avatars found to be more credible than female
avatars and both of them were more credible than androgynous ones.
Another similar study was conducted with a fictional e-commerce website and users
were asked to rate the credibility of product review comments left in the site about an
electronic product (McGloin et al., 2009, p.5). Each of the comments had different
avatars, one an anthropomorphic human male and one a dinosaur. It was concluded
that anthropomorphic avatar had affected purchase intentions more and had higher
credibility than the animal avatar (p.6).
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There may be several approaches to explain this phenomenon of avatar credibility.
Sociological, gender related, and psychological approaches would all be in order.
However this study would like to assess this issue through a communication theory;
Charles Berger’s Uncertainty Reduction Theory (Berger, 1979) (Berger, 1987). Berger’s
theory describes the initial encounters of individuals as a source of uncertainty and
possible stress. The both sides of this initial encounter focus on reducing this
uncertainty by trying to foresee each other’s motives and actions and evaluating the
value or risks of a possible relationship. As Griffin notes, when two individuals meet for
the very first time two kinds of uncertainty occurs; behavioral and cognitive (Griffin,
2012, p.126). On the cognitive side the individuals look for clues about each other’s
personalities, beliefs, tastes and emotions, on the behavioral side the individuals make
guesses about how they should react within the presence of each other. Griffin notes
that Berger’s theory covers cognitive uncertainty rather than behavioral (p.127).
Berger and Calabrese provides eight main axioms that uncertainty reduction
processes rely on (Berger & Calabrese, 1975, p.102); verbal communication that
operates around conversations of the individuals, nonverbal warmth covers body
language and other positive gestures, information seeking is about paying attention to
what other person likes and is comfortable with, self-disclosure is the release of
personal information as the uncertainty reduces, reciprocity is the match between the
individuals’ paces of personal information sharing, similarity is the match between
characteristics and admirations, liking is the direct proportion between knowing and
liking someone (the more you know, the more you like), shared networks are about
having common acquaintances and friends.
It seems possible to approach uncertainty reduction theory in terms of avatars. To
do that one needs to expand the theory into processes of visual cues and digital
cognitive studies. Patterson proposes that “physical characteristics, appearance cues,
vocal cues and a wide range of nonverbal behaviors” of individuals are processed
almost without any cognitive labor by other individuals in nonverbal communication
(Patterson, 1995 p.3). Burgoon and Hoobler advances this approach and concludes
that the proposed visuals cues are so influential in communication that, if verbal
information would contradict visual information, individuals would rather rely on the
visual (Burgoon & Hoobler, 1994, p.282). Different studies suggest that for uncertainty
reduction individuals would rely on relevant information yet if these information are
not available they would rely on whatever is at hand (Clatterbuck, 1979, p. 154)
(Infante et al., 1997, p.115). In experiments run by Nass and Moon, it has been
uncovered that individuals would mindlessly generate humane and social responses
and ascriptions to computerized and digital entities (Nass and Moon, 2000, p.82). The
experiments suggest that individuals would automatically comprehend digital avatars
in terms of gender, ethnicity, politeness, reciprocity, personality, anthropomorphism,
etc. It could be argued that this automated processes are products of uncertainty
reduction intents – individuals automatically try to categorize digital avatars into known
social categories to understand them.
Inside the digital era, many of these previous findings could relate to avatars, as
avatars provide visual cues that represent people inside digital spaces, with
characteristics that could be processed automatically, that are influential than verbal
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cues and in virtual encounters they seem to be the only initial information available.
Schroeder proposes that avatars are not only information sources, but perceptions
about them also have an impact on communication, behavior and messages in the
digital world (Schroeder, 2002, p.17). Then, avatars could accepted to be the tent pole
of scarce information that people generate online about themselves and their qualities
effect how the messages generated by the said person is processed. As a result
avatars become influential tools in uncertainty reduction in the digital world. Revisiting
Berger’s axioms avatars could be accepted as working on the levels of nonverbal
warmth (containing positive gestures for the recipient), information seeking and
similarity (if the avatar contains clues about what the signified person likes or dislikes)
and finally self-disclosure and reciprocity (what kind of personal information the avatar
carries and if the recipient is comfortable with it) – all of which could be factors in
uncertainty reduction.
However, Ramirez defines a new kind of uncertainty in the digital world which is
"[...] about the veracity of others' self-presentations and about the correspondence of
such presentations to others' offline identities" (Ramirez et al., 2002, p.225). This
conclusion means that the veterans of the communication in digital world are aware
that avatars could be imaginary constructs. Yet, going back to Clatterbuck and Infante,
since they seem to be the only information at hand, individuals will go about utilizing
them for uncertainty reduction.
CONCLUSIONS
This study tried to approach and explain the role of digital avatars in two distinct
ways. In the first part it was debated what kinds of meanings avatars have for their
users. To answer this question based on semiotic theories of Saussure and Lacan, a
new approach was proposed. Saussure’s theory of signs (signifiers and signifieds) and
Lacan’s theory of chain of signifiers as an entry for self, were merged to form a new
viewpoint in which the avatar(s) and the individual form an infinite signification loop
where the concept of self was eventually affected. It has been pointed out that the
individual could slip on multiple identities (avatars) in the digital world as a reaction of
his gaze to the other, in a less risky and more potent way. In this light, avatars, which
were concepts initially thought of representing individuals, could said to be not
signifiers of symbolic selves at all, but imaginary constructs emerged from them.
In the second part, the implications of avatars in digital communication was
debated. It has been found in previous research that the characteristics of avatars
affect the credibility of information, messages and communication generated by their
users. The role of avatars in the digital world was approached by Berger’s uncertainty
reduction theory. As previous findings suggests, it seems agreeable that individuals
use each other’s avatars as a starting point for uncertainty reduction in
communications within virtual spaces. It has been suggested that individuals
automatically catalogue and try to comprehend the visual information presented by
avatars into humanely recognizable categories such as gender, ethnicity, politeness,
reciprocity, personality, anthropomorphism, etc. Thus, avatars could be accepted as an
integral part of nonverbal communication inside the digital and an important tool for
uncertainty reduction.
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As a final word, it should be noted that new virtual spaces emerge almost on daily
basis that uses different systems for avatars and user representation. This requires the
study of avatar semiotics and meaning creation to be a continuous one, in which
previous models and theories need to be revisited and rethought frequently – a
requirement that proves this study area to be a promising and an exciting one.
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