Doing digital human twin? An ethnographic analysis of social practice with avatars in schools

Abstract The term ‘digital human twin’ is frequently used to refer to a digital representation of the human body and its ongoing processes created for the purpose of biomedical modelling, and achieved by means of sensing and data-processing of physiological measurements. Taking a different approach to the idea of a ‘digital human twin’, this sociologically oriented article conceptualises the human body not as a biological system, but as a cultural artefact that is the basis of social interaction. How do digital twins participate in everyday practices, and how are they meaningfully produced, through practices, as a kind of second body or self-representation? Praxeologically, how does ‘doing digital human twin’ work? The question is investigated on the basis of empirical material: ethnographic observations of practices involving avatars in schools. In this empirical example, the concept of the ‘digital human twin’ is used as an analytical lens that can be examined in terms of its epistemological potential. The article explores practices undertaken in the creative interactions of users with their avatars, revealing thereby both parallels and limitations in relation to established ‘digital human twin’ concepts. By analysing these fits and misfits, the article contributes to the further reflection on the concept. Finally, the author proposes that the socio-technical practices involved in the production of a digital self-representation or a digital being could better be described not as twinning, but as ‘digital human distribution’. Finally, the question is raised as to whether the socio-technical practices observed suggest a distribution rather than a twinning. The research is based on a project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).