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Avatars
vinlyn
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.
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Comments
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.
Yeah, some of those avatars look angry or upset. No @silver, they're just assigned when you register. I know I changed mine ASAP.
Ok, so I'm not crazy...at least in regard to this.
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
ah perceptions! I guess it's good practice for us, looking beyond appearances.
OK, friendly is as friendly does....
In any event, I think it would be cool if there were something more mature, more artistic, for a change of pace.
Well, @silver I don't think everyone would be happy with a photo of me, everywhere....
I had people's avatars showing up instead of emoticons last week.
Ditto @Federica.
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?
Do they live in circumstances where possibly being outed as a Buddhist would affect them socially or job wise?
Buddhists in the witness protection program?
We have to hide from ISIS.
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.)
But you're a palm tree!
I'm really a talking bird!
@silver
Computer ignorance is my excuse @silver...but...yes..Your avatar is much brighter than mine.
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.
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.
There are very legitimate reasons for some people not to share their information online.
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.
@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
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 ...
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 ...
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.
Hip-hip-hooray for @how !!!!!!!
Of course I also sympathize with those who crave anonymity ... after all, here is my 'honest' photo
(Your bow tie's crooked. Shame on you.)
If ever you want a change of avatar (and I haveta say, that Kuan Yin's not like any other I have ever seen!) you can have this one....
I'm on the run from Wormwood Scrubs and hiding art wiv cockney chimney sweeps, I don't want no bleedin' coppers banging at me door and taking darn my particulars.
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?
How's this, @how?
It was meant to be a joke @how, (OK so I suck at humour
) 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 
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.
I definitely ain't doing that.
I love your new avatar, @robot.
Nice to see your face
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...
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
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?
It all seems a bit idiotic ... the already-wise camouflaging themselves with weasel-y energy among the wise.
Just a thought from...
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.
Why is not posting ones picture as an avatar seen as hiding? Why do we so often feel the need to demand (or request) an explanation when someone sees something differently than we do? Isn't it enough to trust (in many situations, particularly ones as light-hearted as this) that they have reasons? Why does my photo make my words more valid?
In some cases, sure, people use the internet as an anonymous way to own their words. I don't think that is most often the case here. I certainly don't say anything I wouldn't say in person nor am I afraid to own what I say. I just am not big into avatars and don't read a lot into them.
Perhaps it is because I've been on the internet since long before the internet even HAD pictures or graphics or webpages that I had little attachment to using them to identify myself.
I did, however, post a picture of myself in the picture thread with my son, because it was a joyous moment for him and our family. So it's out there if someone strongly feels the need to attach a face with my novels.
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.
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.
Aharrr, Jim Lad, shiver me timbers!
@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.
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.
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.
My identity is so secret...Even "I" don't know who "I" am