How Much Do Avatars Affect Your Views of Others?

My lingering suspicion is they affect a lot. I think people by nature can't help but be a bit superficial and judge others based on how they look. I know I'm guilty of it too. It's really hard to see someone for who they really are and not just for how they look. So I do think it's important to have an Avatar that you really feel suits you. It may help the way others think about you psychologically.

Let me give an example. I had no idea Mr.Minio, with that cute girly avatar, and his pervy posts was the same person as the one who used to have an avatar of an old guy with weird glasses on. It just occurred to me, and I thought, "wow that's the same person? He kinda seems like a completely different person now..."

What do you guys think?

That's exactly what I was gonna say.

Camo was telling me the other day he thought my Jake Gyllenhaal in Southpaw avatar looked mean and made him feel angry. Gbgoodies told me she hated it and thought it looked like a loser. I never thought it was bad or did anything like that at all, but, that's how they felt and I acknowledged it. We can't help how we'll automatically react to something... and often, these avatars, as well as our profile banners, can be revealing about ourselves and our personalities or whatever we're going through... whether we realize it or not.

These things are definitely influential. Images are powerful. They can be more revealing than words.

Good question. I can only speak for me. It doesn't mean much to me, unless it says something. If someone has an avatar of a movie I love, I'll think positively of that person. But I can imagine it's important for other people.

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Correction: I said I still want to punch him in the face

I tend to be myopic about it.

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My mind works very literally, so when I see someone's avatar, I connect them to that image.

For example, in my mind, the members of this forum include people like Jake Gyllenhaal, Orson Welles, Drew Barrymore, Joaquin Phoenix, Humphrey Bogart, George Clooney, etc. When I read their posts, I can almost hear the words in those voices.

However, because of this, it gets kind of confusing for me when people use opposite gender avatars.

I constantly think Honeykid's a woman because of his Drew avatars.

And it's not that I think he is Drew or sounds like Drew... I dunno. Sometimes he's a crossdresser or a transsexual to me. Female body, man's voice. It's probably why he's into Eddie Izzard.

I totally changed into this current smiling Jake avatar because I thought the other one was too black & white and too gloomy. I put that thing on after fighting with Sedai in "The Men of Our Dreams" thread (we were fighting over the hot guys) and I was probably just too moody to wear a smile then.

Interesting question, thanks for sharing your thoughts.

I think it does but I think the tone of the posts creates the mental image in the long run more than the avatar.

It doesn't influence the way I view someone. I get an idea of them through their posts more than anything.

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I've heard that images are the most effective form of communication, while words are the least effective.

One thing that freequently happens to me on forums in general is that I write things that can easily be interpreted in a harsh critical way. Sometimes I mean them very lightheartedly, but other people take offense and get up in arms.

It's happened a few times to a lesser degree here. But it has happened to much worse degrees on other forums. It's really hard to communicate a complex thought with just words. And I have no idea what other people think of me. I can't see what they see in my words, because I don't know if they understand the words I use the way I understand them. But I know everyone sees the exact same image that I see as my avatar.

sure it puts a spin on things.. just like if they type in all caps. makes it hard to only read the message they're posting and not take anything else away.

Think of it this way: our words here are what we're saying. Our avatars, however, are like our body language. No, you can't change your avatar for every post, but what you use for awhile can say something about yourself at that particular time.

I agree Sexy. Take foster for example. He looks totally different now. He looks kinda cool, whereas before the walrus looked a bit goofy humorous. I guess our avatar is kind of like our digital self image.

Walrus lol. It was a pic I took of my dog

Boy, don't I feel silly now... lol... for some reason it looked like a walrus to me.

I don't think avatars affect my views of people. They can, however, affect my ability to identify those people.

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That was funny about the walrus. Anyway, I use the words, what people talk about, to get an image of them. However, I prefer pictures of everyone. I think that, and their personality, the words they post, tell me plenty. We also have a thread somewhere where they are trying to get audios of everyone. That would truly help a lot. I have always been taken too serious because of my sarcastic/smartass personality. Trust me, I'm usually kidding. Yes, I said usually.

I think Honey is way past due for a photo. He hasn't ever shared one, has he?

OK, I'm still laughing about the walrus.

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Several of us recorded voice posts in the chill club, but those files sadly were lost by the site they were uploaded to. Oh well. Several of mine were a bit NSFW anyway.

I don't think he's ever even shared a childhood photo. Don't think he ever will, either.

Any other pictures of the dog? Because based on that one your dog might look a heck of a lot like mine.