How Avatars Support a Private and Unique Metaverse

The internet is a digital universe built on User-Generated Content (UGC) and we use avatars to express and protect our identities

What is an avatar? Your first thought may be of the 2009 movie Avatar, where the main character’s mind digitally inhabits an alien body. Or maybe you think of it as a digital representation of a person. A highly customizable video game persona or picture you can use to identify yourself.

But did you know the concept originated in the Pos-Veda period from a Sanskrit word in Hindu culture? It “refers to the embodiment of the essence of a superhuman being or a deity in another form.”

It was originally meant as a symbolic word for characterizing how the gods would transition from the heavens to the physical world. Taken in this context, it seems fitting that in modern times, an avatar is a symbolic representation human beings choose for themselves as they cross over into the digital world.

But what exactly is an avatar and how does it support a unique and private metaverse?

What is the metaverse?

A metaverse is a digital universe created from a social network of computer devices.