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Avatars

vinlynvinlyn Colorado...for now Veteran

It's probably just me, but when I post in response to someone, their avatar says something to me. If it's an angry looking avatar (for example), I consciously or subconsciously identify that person with that avatar.

This is particularly true of the avatars that are automatically assigned to people who don't furnish their own avatar.

As I said, maybe it's just me, but maybe the automatic avatars ought to be reconsidered.

bookworm
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Comments

  • silversilver In the beginning there was nothing, and then it exploded. USA, Left coast. Veteran

    Oh I agree...they're kind of childish looking -- some get lucky. But don't they get to pick them at all? I can't even remember. It would solve everything if you could choose any picture (if you google) and have it fit without worrying the size.

  • WalkerWalker Veteran Veteran

    Yeah, some of those avatars look angry or upset. No @silver, they're just assigned when you register. I know I changed mine ASAP. =)

  • vinlynvinlyn Colorado...for now Veteran

    Ok, so I'm not crazy...at least in regard to this. O.o

    WalkerRowan1980
  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran

    yeah some of them (the standard assigned) look like funny things to me or I think the person is grouchy or even a pirate haha

  • WalkerWalker Veteran Veteran

    ah perceptions! I guess it's good practice for us, looking beyond appearances. >:)

    ShoshinZenni
  • JasonJason God Emperor Arrakis Moderator
    edited May 2015
    While it's natural for us to be influenced by appearances, I think it's a good practice for us to not allow those initial reactions and perceptions to dictate how we treat one another. Form is emptiness as they say. We are not our avatars. And just as when we judge a book by its cover we run the risk of missing out on the words underneath it, so too when we judge someone by their avatar, age, gender, physical appearance, etc., we run the risk of missing the person underneath that 'form.'
    VastmindZenni
  • silversilver In the beginning there was nothing, and then it exploded. USA, Left coast. Veteran

    In any event, I think it would be cool if there were something more mature, more artistic, for a change of pace.

  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator

    Well, @silver I don't think everyone would be happy with a photo of me, everywhere....

    silverWalker
  • robotrobot Veteran

    I had people's avatars showing up instead of emoticons last week.

  • silversilver In the beginning there was nothing, and then it exploded. USA, Left coast. Veteran

    Ditto @Federica. :3

  • vinlynvinlyn Colorado...for now Veteran

    We have to hide from ISIS.

    BuddhadragonShak
  • silversilver In the beginning there was nothing, and then it exploded. USA, Left coast. Veteran

    Well, @how, your latest is so dark, I can't really make out your features and @vinlyn's avy picture is so small, he looks a thousand miles away. (I don't think I could make either one of you out in a line-up.) B)

    WalkerbookwormBuddhadragon
  • vinlynvinlyn Colorado...for now Veteran

    But you're a palm tree!

    silverWalkerBuddhadragon
  • howhow Veteran Veteran

    @silver
    Computer ignorance is my excuse @silver...but...yes..Your avatar is much brighter than mine.

  • karastikarasti Breathing Minnesota Moderator

    I don't put my picture in my avatar because I don't like pictures of myself, lol. I just feel they don't represent me, like, I see photos of myself and I don't relate to them very much. I usually put profile photos as simply photos I like. The owl in mine was a photo my husband took that I happen to like.

    silverRowan1980EarthninjaZenni
  • VastmindVastmind Memphis, TN Veteran
    edited May 2015

    To satisfy the curiosity of @how ....

    My personal reasons for not showing my face are:

    Fear of a stalker. Fear of ID theft. Fear of being targeted bec of where I work.

    Fear of being targeted bec of my social activism.

    Fear that my children would be targeted.

    BTW: If you really take the time to get to know people on here...you can figure out their general human looks/shape. After that, I like to see how avatars represent people without a pic of the human body. Can be very interesting/telling in it's own right.

    WalkerlobsterBuddhadragonZenni
  • vinlynvinlyn Colorado...for now Veteran

    There are very legitimate reasons for some people not to share their information online.

    lobster
  • JasonJason God Emperor Arrakis Moderator
    edited May 2015
    Who cares what someone looks like or what their name or gender or age or sexual orientation or whatever is? We're here to share our thoughts and experiences, not our a/s/l.
    lobsterkarastiRowan1980Zenni
  • silversilver In the beginning there was nothing, and then it exploded. USA, Left coast. Veteran

    I don't care what anybody looks like, etc. It's nice to know but that's about all that can be said about that......I'd just like to have avies that are more sophisticated, I suppose you could say.

  • ZenniZenni Veteran

    @how - I live in a family of "Staunch Christians", who (all the members) are dead against any other religions.

    With Buddhism in my heart, I am in the process of my own healing and learning to live 'more' skillfully. During this time, a younger member had noticed my peace. I am sharing what I have learned and still learning, as and when at appropriate opportunities / when receptive.

    Namaste

    silverWalkerlobsterJeffrey
  • WalkerWalker Veteran Veteran

    @Zenni said:
    how - I live in a family of "Staunch Christians", who (all the members) are dead against any other religions.

    With Buddhism in my heart, I am in the process of my own healing and learning to live 'more' skillfully. During this time, a younger member had noticed my peace. I am sharing what I have learned and still learning, as and when at appropriate opportunities / when receptive.

    Namaste

    Same here @Zenni . Evangelical/Literalist/Fundamental. We have some interesting discussions about all the topics you're not supposed to talk about at dinner. Religion/Politics ;)

    Zenni
  • lobsterlobster Veteran

    @Jason said:
    Who cares what someone looks like or what their name or gender or age or sexual orientation or whatever is? We're here to share our thoughts and experiences, not our a/s/l.

    People do care. They do make judgements and assumptions. It is our very human nature.

    Ideally in the sense that @Jason means it, appearance is no indication of personal development as both the claws growing out of my head always remind me ... :p

    Hiding behind 'openness' is a well known tactic of the devious, dangerous and deluded.

    I will now scuttle back behind my favourite shell

    ... and now back to the beautiful shells ...

    Zenni
  • BuddhadragonBuddhadragon Ehipassiko & Carpe Diem Samsara Veteran

    I have no reason to be on a media protection programme.
    I am who I am, have nothing to hide, no one to hide from...
    Whoever wants to see my likeness, I have pictures of mine posted in the member pictures section, the random thread and all over the forum, for that matter.
    On Insight Timer, I have a photo for an avatar, but here, somehow I got rather attached to this Kuan Yin image.
    I must have the silly notion that Kuan Yin's tenderness makes up for the harshness of my comments.

  • ShoshinShoshin No one in particular Nowhere Special Veteran

    @how said:
    I'd be curious in hearing why folks have Avatars to be anonymous behind?

    There's no permanently abiding self @how and you of all people should know this... :D

  • howhow Veteran Veteran
    edited May 2015

    @Shoshin said:
    There's no permanently abiding self @how and you of all people should know this

    Perhaps you can tie/ no permanently abiding self/ you of all people should know this/ & anonymous avatars/ together for me is someway that makes sense?

  • ShoshinShoshin No one in particular Nowhere Special Veteran

    @how said:
    Perhaps you can tie/ no permanently abiding self/ you of all people should know this/ & anonymous avatars/ together for me is someway that makes sense?

    I'd be curious in hearing why folks have Avatars to be anonymous behind?
    Why are they unwilling to be potentially identified to their words?

    It was meant to be a joke @how, (OK so I suck at humour :D ) however we are a constant state of flux "moment to moment" so any form of a self that is presented one moment is gone the next, so in a sense "anonymous" ( made or done by someone unknown. ) all the lights are on but no one's ever home... But as usual I could well be wrong and perhaps confuse the issue even more :D

  • howhow Veteran Veteran
    edited May 2015

    @robot said:
    How's this, how?

    An example of someone prepared to put their money where their mouth is.

    It reminds me of another Buddhist site that I saw transform into something transcendent when most of it's members who had originally wrote from the shadows, decided that what they had to say was worth the risks of putting their face beside their words.

    Of course... exposing oneself to possibly being different in a small town might be the equivalent of redecorating my neighborhood with an uzi in the city I live in.

  • BuddhadragonBuddhadragon Ehipassiko & Carpe Diem Samsara Veteran
    edited May 2015

    I love your new avatar, @robot.
    Nice to see your face <3

    Now that I came out of the avatar closet -not that I was ever hidden, anyway- I'll have to be more careful with what comes out of my mouth... my dreaded right speech deficiency...

    Note: I had to go to the computer because I still don't know how to download photos from my tablet...

    robot
  • lobsterlobster Veteran

    @how said:
    An example of someone prepared to put their money where their mouth is.

    :)
    There are other possibilities.

    Sometimes it is to protect others, not self. For many years I was stalked by somone deeply disturbed who had decided I was always sending them messages on forums and replies to their voluminous daily personal posts which I eventually did not read. Nothing seemed to dissuade their posts.

    Whenever I tried to engage this made the situation far worse for them, in effect feeding their fantasies. I have no desire to be a personal councillor, gnu guru or psycho-spiritual paramedic.

    Other situations also ensued but not as extreme.

    It all started with a simple photo attached to people's inability to understand the price, including me, of unskilful attachment to appearance.

    Not an ideal world and now back to selfie avatars, visual cue assumptions and perhaps words without emoticons o:)

    WalkerZennihowbookworm
  • BuddhadragonBuddhadragon Ehipassiko & Carpe Diem Samsara Veteran
    edited May 2015

    You are right, @lobster.
    I was also stalked years ago, before Internet times, and an ex-boyfriend still calls my mother.
    In my case, I couldn't care less...
    And it's not about attachment to appearance, anyway...

    Edit: By all means, @lobster, I am in no way shrugging off the risks of showing one's image in the media nor mocking people whose concerns might be very real.
    But most of us are part of a social network of any kind these days.
    Whoever wants to manipulate your identity and/or image is probably already doing so.
    I have no bad intentions towards anyone, nor do any harm to anyone, so I can only trust to be reciprocated.

  • I like fairies and choose to hide my face as I feel it bears no resemblance to the person I actually am.

    I sometimes wonder if the person I choose to be bears any resemblance to the person the that I actually am?

  • genkakugenkaku Northampton, Mass. U.S.A. Veteran

    It all seems a bit idiotic ... the already-wise camouflaging themselves with weasel-y energy among the wise.

    Just a thought from...

    lobsterRowan1980silver
  • robotrobot Veteran

    @how said:
    Of course... exposing oneself to possibly being different in a small town might be the equivalent of redecorating my neighborhood with an uzi in the city I live in.

    If you run into my daughter in kyuquot you can at least say you know what I look like. She and her fellow are running a fishing lodge in there this summer. The westerlys are worse this year than last so far. Hope it's not the new normal.

  • BuddhadragonBuddhadragon Ehipassiko & Carpe Diem Samsara Veteran

    I am not sure this is a case of "me who show my face" against "you who hide behind an avatar," here.

    I don't know if anyone expressed it that way, but I know I didn't.

    I am rather new to social sites on the net. I started here.
    And the only other place is Insight Timer app.

    Many people contact me with Friend Requests, and I must own I feel more comfortable around people with a face.
    I perfectly understand people who choose to place an avatar instead of a picture, but I am instinctively more wary of them.
    In an age where usurping an identity and creating virtual alter egos is the currency of the day, I personally appreciate that old feel of connecting with someone who shows his likeness.
    Putting a face to a person I communicate with on a daily basis is not a priority, but it makes the contact more real to me.

    bookwormhowlobster
  • gracklegrackle Veteran

    I like my avatar. Some see a pirate there. Ah me hearties lets sail the Spanish main. Thar be doubloons and grog for all you sea dogs.

    WalkerZenshinRowan1980silver
  • DairyLamaDairyLama Veteran Veteran

    Aharrr, Jim Lad, shiver me timbers!

  • karastikarasti Breathing Minnesota Moderator

    @DhammaDragon I was mostly thinking about @how's comment saying he was curious why people have anon. avatar's to be behind. I read it as "why do they hide behind avatar's" but perhaps that is not what he intended.

  • VastmindVastmind Memphis, TN Veteran
    edited May 2015

    Money where his mouth is??

    At the risk of sounding anti-climatic....Seriously? You didn't have a clue that @robot was a middle aged white guy?

    The surprise is underwhelming.

    WalkerkarastiZenshinrobot
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator

    I frequent a relationship forum where everything and anything regarding relationships is up for discussion. I mean, absolutely EVERYTHING.

    Personal, identifiable avatars are strongly discouraged.

  • ShoshinShoshin No one in particular Nowhere Special Veteran

    My identity is so secret...Even "I" don't know who "I" am :)

    WalkerZenshinmmosilver
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