In the Globe and Mail’s New Year’s edition, new trends in technology were highlighted for 2009. Top of the list? Avatars. Apparently we can anticipate much greater mainstream acceptance of these for 2009. The article goes on to cite a case in Japan wherein a woman is facing charges related to \”murdering\” her husband\’s avatar in an online video game. A British couple is divorcing after a woman caught her partner’s avatar \”cheating\” with another woman’s.

I know that the premise behind the rise of the avatar is the novelty of being able to digitally act out your fantasies. The article asks the question: “Who do you want to be, digitally speaking?” I wonder if the couple in Japan would have answered “murderer/murder victim” or the British couple “adulterer/divorcee”.

I wonder also where they’d be if someone had have asked them: “Who do you want to be, really?” How much better off would we all be if we checked in frequently with who we are, how we can be our best selves FOR ourselves and others, where we’re going, and how we can positively impact one another.

In considering this, it reminded me of an article I read a long, LONG time ago about being who you are and living your truth (Daily OM). The idea is that as children, we are our authentic selves and as we age, we move away from that.

Wouldn’t it be a wonderful if as adults we tried harder to tap into our authentic selves rather than reasonably drawn facsimiles?