Do the avatars reflect the posters?

hello, everyone.

I was just thinking that i react to people's avatars.

If someone has a mean image on theirs, i dont warm up to them as easily as i do if someone has a nice avatar. Does that happen to you?

Just a silly thought.

Some avatars intimidate the H out of me.

An avatar is a form of expression, like style of dress or a haircut.
For some (like me) they just like to make different avatars because they enjoy it. I don’t think you can read much of a person based on their avatar, though a person may react to your posts differently based on it.

Umbrax your avatar rocks!

Because it rocks i like Umbrax... so yeah, i guess the mans got style and content and skills... so i guess yes you get a piece of a personality through an avatar.


Me, i deal with death and injury every day, so i have a little black humour in mine some times, but im a God follower, so some times I use a religiouse avatar.... which is in more use at the time is which feelings are stronger...the dark humour or the reverence of God!

I must admit that avatars do affect the way I initially think of someone....crazy and unfair I know but as they say "An image is worth 1000 words".

I agree.

I love seeing a sense of humor or a message attached to an avatar that makes me laugh.

I like to laugh.

Its true. The avatars we support do say a lot about us as a person. Whether we want them to or not.

My previous avatar:



benevolent tyrant actually contacted me to see if my health was 100%. He wasn't sure if I was in an accident or not. I found it humorous, but it is just an indication of how much these can say.

An avatar of a higher quality may warm other members up and open them up to your posts. When we come to a post, the first thing our eye catches is the avatar. First impressions people, they are important. They don't make the difference, but unfortunately generalizations are made.

I think it can, it does'nt always, but it definately does effect
the reader.


I think that the avatar can sometimes reflect a part of the
individuals personality to.

Take my current one for example, it's the logo of the
Electronic Frontiers Foundation,
which is an internet civil liberties group.

I am a big proponent of civil rights, so it reflects that.

I believe that avatars are an expression of your personality.

Well, I have been thinking of changing my avatar for some time, I may have had some people scared or getting against me just because of the picture I use.

As I am going to change it, this is the one I have been using.

Originally posted by kinglizard
I must admit that avatars do affect the way I initially think of someone....crazy and unfair I know but as they say "An image is worth 1000 words".

That gave me an idea for my new, minimalistic, avatar.

I just use them for a bit of fun with pictures, and the area of country that I like, ages ago I had part of Hadrians wall with the sun just over it.

I chose this one because of how it looks.

yes. I'm an overweight super hero.

well not really, but I do wear red tights.

This avatar I'm useing is Bjork's Human Behavior. I like Bjork She's different and very original And at times can be kinda rebellious and tough yet feminine at the same time.

When I'm not useing Bjork I usually change to pre-raphaelite art. The pre-raphaelites were the "rebels" of the art world at one time. Some of the paintings of that era are the most beautiful I've ever seen.


So I guess my avatars kinda reflect my personality in some ways.

The avatars are the closest thing to a profile picture I guess. They may not represent the person completely but it usually does reflect some part of them that they enjoy, or find attractive or meaningful.

I found the little alien and had him as a desktop image for a while...tired of it so I made him a "she"...the bar code idea reminds me of "the generic" sides of life for some reason...like my name. I think the alien is kinda cheeky... it makes me smile

Honestly though if I could enlarge the dancing banana emoticon I'd use that as an avatar.

I'm not sure if my avatar reflects my personality, but I do know that it's a very important image to me. I had a brief stint with a dancing Carleton, the Soul Glo jerry curl guy and Zangief pile driving a baby, but I didn't think they brought out the real me. Now I can't seem to change this one. I just can't bring myself to do it.

For Justgeneric:

Here you go!

Thats just a smidge too big. 10 pixels too wide.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

I supplied the "big bannana"

Its up to him/her to size it. I dont know how to do it- Chissler, you're the brains here.

My avatar isn't fancy .. but it's my mood and it's 'me'.

I'm sure Avatars do reflect the poster. Afterall .... they picked them out for a reason and it should have something to do with them.

I'm also sure that on some level we all react to each other's avatars. It's human nature. And it's no different than us all reacting to each others looks IRL on some level as well.

Jung would probably say something like: an avatar is like a costume or mask and represents the persona or psyche that a person desires to project upon the virtual world.

I'm not sure how relevant it is in projecting the true self, cause a crippled person might use a superhero avatar to mask his physical limits, or someone who is easily intimidated or vulnerable might use a monster or demon avatar. I have also seen plenty of gender reversal avatars around here too.

What's great about art is that it's a subjective experience and can mean different things to different people. I suppose mine (my real face) says, "I am a a crazy Swiss-American sci-fi guy who likes to make fun and poke at the status quo."


Be excellent to each other and party on!



[edit on 12-11-2006 by Regenmacher]

umm hope you know that i do wax, unlike my avatar lol