Idealization

**Idealization** is the action of regarding or representing something as perfect or better than in reality. This is

## Idealization

connected to everything that the internet is. Because of the anonymity of the internet it affords users to be able to create the person that they want to be.  This is especially true when it comes to Avatars and social media. Avatars are a way for an individual to show how they want to look, what features are most appealing to them and become that person. Most individuals do not make Avatars that look like themselves. Experiments conducted even show that individuals who do make avatars that look pretty close to their actual appearance will change certain things to their own ideal image, such as taking off a little weight from the Avatar and making them much thinner than the individual is in reality. Although not to the extent of creating Avatars, there is a certain level of idealization on social media. Often times the user will only use the best picture they can, or will go out of their way to make an amazing profile picture just for Facebook.

## Idealization and Devaluation

Often times human beings tend to see things in black and white or good and bad. Sometimes there is no gray area in between and this is when Idealization and Devaluation come into play.

#### **Idealization**

Idealization when an individual constructs an ideal world, person or situation and totally believes in their construction without fail. When an individual idealizes something, someone or a situation he or she is in denial of all the negative aspects about that object or situation. This can lead to an dependence of an object or person and eventually lead to dependent personality disorder.

**Devaluation**

Devaluation is another part of idealization. However, devaluation is when an individual sees something as all bad instead of all good such as idealization. This leads to exaggerated, negative qualities that individuals attribute to themselves or others.

## Idealization on the Internet

Avatars are an online representation of a person. However, many people on the internet do not actually make accurate representations of themselves. They idealize their avatars in some way. They make them thinner, they create an avatar without glasses, give themselves a different hair color and more. This is a way to create an idealized version of themselves. How they would want to look if they had the ability to choose. Idealization allows individuals to be the desired versions of themselves over their actual selves.

## References

1. Idealization and Devaluation. (2018, April 5). In *Psychology Wikia*. Retrieved April 5, 2018, from http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Idealization\_and\_devaluation
2. Idealization and Devaluation. (2018, April 5). In *Wikipedia*. Retrieved April 5, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idealization\_and\_devaluation
3. Thomas, A. G., & Johansen, M. K. (2012). Inside out: Avatars as an indirect measure of ideal body self-presentation in females. In *cyberpsychology*. Retrieved from https://cyberpsychology.eu/article/view/4270/3309http://nickyee.com/pubs/Ducheneaut,%20Wen,%20Yee,%20Wadley%20-%20CHI%202009.pdf

1. ↑ http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Idealization\_and\_devaluation#Idealization
2. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idealization\_and\_devaluation
3. ↑ https://cyberpsychology.eu/article/view/4270/3309http://nickyee.com/pubs/Ducheneaut,%20Wen,%20Yee,%20Wadley%20-%20CHI%202009.pdf