Your Avatar Is You

Isn't it strange how people's avatars on social media really do shape the vision of them you have in your mind? Whether it's a Sailor Moon screenshot, a drawing of an apple, a cute dog, or actually a picture of the person in question, their avatar becomes who they are. Every time you see the person with the dog picture avatar's tweets, you subconsciously think of them as a happy go lucky pup, perhaps. It's kinda cool.


I generally like to use an actual picture of myself as my avatar, but I wonder what impression it makes based on the colours, or my pose? For a while I used a simple heart as an avatar, which I liked a lot, but I wondered if it made me seem like somehow I might not be a person. I'm actually a floating heart, and I've tricked you all this time.

I like avatars people have drawn of themselves, because it's such a nice insight into how they represent themselves artistically, and with illustration you can play around with it a lot. Still, sometimes it's even more fun to represent yourself with a weird picture of your favourite celebrity, or a grumpy comic strip character. With our avatars we become symbols representing ourselves, distilling our essence into one image. When we change them it's like emerging from a cocoon. You're a beautiful online butterfly now. Until next time.
Whispered by on

4 comments:

  1. StaySkeptic25 April 2018 at 21:10

    I usually check out the accounts of people who follow me so here I am. Heh, I thought I was one of the few people that likes to use their face as their avatar on these kinds of sites. I only stopped doing it because I wanted to use my youtube channel logo to make the channel more recognizable. And it really is true, the avatar does shape how I think of people, I never really thought about it. It's what I attach to all of their posts in my head and sometimes I will associate that image with them all my life so sometimes I get slightly disappointed when their real face doesn't fit :')

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    1. Lilly Ashton26 April 2018 at 08:07

      Yeah, it's really funny when you picture someone a certain way based on their avatar which is nothing like their actual physical form, but I think it's kinda cool that we can't help but create an image of someone in our minds, however hazy.

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  2. StaySkeptic26 April 2018 at 12:22

    It is pretty cool isn't it? I've noticed the same thing with voices. I always had certain youtube channels which only used their voice for which I built up a certain image in my head. Sometimes I wouldn't want a face reveal simply because it would make reality clash with that image. There's something oddly cool about believing in the image of someone's avatar or voice. The fact that it's more abstract makes it somewhat charming.

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    1. Lilly Ashton28 April 2018 at 09:33

      Yeah I know what you mean - sometimes there's a charm & mystery to that. A voice can lend itself to so much.

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