“What the F$%k is an AVATAR?“, I thought to myself just a little over a year ago. My nine-year-old nephew told me that he’d bet $5 that his avatar online was cooler than mine. Considering mine would have been a lost girl drawing a….total blank….he was probably right.

Having felt embarrassingly ignorant to this concept once myself, I’m gonna score some karma points by giving you the rundown of what exactly all these nine-year-olds are talking about.

Avatar, in Hindu philosophy, actually means a bodily manifestation. The concept isn’t so glamorous when applied to the internet and computing, though. While an avatar is still a bodily manifestation of some sort when on the internet, it’s more like a cartoon character that you pick to represent yourself rather than a higher being.

The whole craze actually started in 1985 with a computer game called Ultima. The “avatar” was the visual on-screen persona of the player. Nowadays, everyone from elementary school kids to grandparents looking to find friends online have become familiar with this concept.

Typically, in the land of chats, forums, blogs, and games, a person has to pick their avatar from a bunch. It’s kind of eerie, if you ask me! Everyone from every age group is now learning to associate themselves with a little cartoon based on basic traits like eye, hair, and skin color. Of course, if you’re lucky, you may even get to represent your very own subculture with your avatar…you know, broadcast to the world that you’re a punk by choosing the avatar with a mohawk, for example.

So does this sound like something you never want to be a part of? Well, you’re probably too late in drawing this conclusion. Even buddy icons on AIM function as avatars.

Yes, ladies, it’s true: we are becoming a generation of images. So I’m gonna take advantage of it and pick an image of some super hot brunette cartoon. I win the avatar game!

Do geeks make good boyfriends?

Because the internet is all expansive and all knowing, someone has already answered that question for me in a convenient, numbered fashion.

Many of the reasons are funny, and most make a lot of sense. Like number 6:

“[geeks] are quite good at remembering dates. Like birthdates and such, especially if they know it’ll make you happy. Due to their neglected status, they’re more attentive than guys who “have more options”. Plus, with all that down time without a steady girlfriend, they’ll likely have mental lists of all the things they’d love to do once they GOT a girlfriend.”

Having never dated a tried and true Geek before (although I did have a brief fling with someone who was a closet nerd…which wasn’t the reason we broke up…as far as he knew), I’m not the biggest expert on socially awkward people in relationships. However, the guy geeks I’ve been acquainted with over the years do tend to treat their girlfriends with an amazing amount of care.

And yes, like reason number 11, the cause for this amazing amount of care seems to stem from the fact that actually having a chick dig their nerdly ways is enough to make them ready and willing to do just about anything.

So tell us, DO geeks make better boyfriends? Or will they always make you second best to that hot pixilated babe in EverQuest?