When hobnobbing in cyberspace, Indonesians are especially likely to use avatars rather than real pictures of themselves, says Mr Goh. “Indonesia is a moderate Muslim country where people are creating new virtual identities completely different [from] their real identities,” he explains. Users with black eyes and black hair, say, may create virtual personae with grey eyes and blond hair.
This is common elsewhere in East Asia and in the Middle East, too. But Indonesia is a special case, reckons Mr Goh: its social networks freely integrate both real and imagined selves.
