Avatar

My second life avatar, HeatherC Heartsdale, is a reasonably true reflection of myself. I chose my name because one of my favorite literary devices is alliteration; I chose to use my real first name, Heather, and my last initial and feel that Heartsdale accompanies my name nicely. In second life, I chose to make my avatar look and dress similar to myself. My avatar’s outfit is simple and comfortable – just a pair of jeans and a hooded sweatshirt, much like what I would wear in real life. I find it intriguing that I can see a virtual version of myself walking around because in real life we do not get the chance to step back and see ourselves. While we are able to see an image of ourselves projected in a mirror or in a picture, it is impossible to remove ourselves from our body and see what we look like to others. Second Life affords us the opportunity to see how we appear to and interact with others through a virtual setting. I feel that any kind of avatar will work in second life, whether it resembles a human, alien or anything in between. An avatar is a representation of yourself and your online appearance is simply another aspect of your personality and a different view of yourself. Through my second life avatar, I hope to share my ideas and opinions with others in an open environment that is different from the type of environment the classroom provides. Many times it is easier to express our ideas online, through virtual vehicles such as blogs and avatars because we can quickly communicate an idea without over editing our initial reactions on a subject. I look forward to using Second Life as an alternative way of looking at literature and hope that it becomes a useful tool in my visualization of the pieces we explore this semester.