You know what I mean? Aren't they a little bit Stepford Wives? Where are the imperfections - the moles, the double chins, the pimples, the receding hairlines? Or is it a given in our culture that anything that strays from the physical ideal should be shunned?
2007-02-05 10:33:27 · 12 answers · asked by Mister Yatman 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Cultures & Groups ➔ Other - Cultures & Groups
They're symbols that we can use them to "sell" our online presence to others. They are symmetrical and perfectly proportioned and just a tad bid pedomorphic. Look at the proportions of the head and eyes, especially for the female avatars. Very Betty Boop, big eyes and cranium, small chin. The guys can get something that is a little more andro, flared jaw, pronounced chin.
The same reason many people choose these graphics are they same reason they are created, they are marketable images. The graphic designer or illustrator - whoever they may be - is aware marketable of archetypes and trained to represent them. Artists create and work with archetypes to visually identify and simplify character, with daily comics and popular cartoons requiring the quickest visual identification to match the audience's supposed investment and attention span.
For a forum, I think the representation makes sense, big head and eyes are the essential proportional formula for humans, they are our specializations and essential organs for intelligence and awareness.
Statistically, people who conform to this in life are perceived as being more sociable/attractive in superficial encounters. It's thought that people are actually very subconsciously aware of morphological proportion and assign symbolic meaning towards different "morphotypes", ( a term I’m a bit leery of, it's a bit reductionist.)
Considering the scale of our interactions on this forum - which anyone in the world can read- our contact is superficial at best, that's why features symbolizing, health, beauty, fecundity, attitude, gender and intelligence must be graphically simplified for quick consumption. Given the ability to do so, many of us choose to conform to these standards of human attractiveness and/or symbolic assignment when social integration is desired.
Another reason for the uniformity, getting back to graphic design, is the fact that the avatar generator is probably a flash-based program, which is essentially graphic cut-and-paste. All the “heads” have a graphic template as do all the “eyes”, and so on.
Interesting to know of the number of people who are dissatisfied/ creeped out with the avatars. There’s a connection between mass multi-user systems such as yahoo and the sociological perspectives that attempt to answer them; that our broadest and most generalized trends are best viewed from a likewise broad sampling of society. Everyone is an individual until they are observed from afar.
2007-02-05 15:06:23 · answer #1 · answered by ChromeBoulder 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
in case you bypass on your profile, and click on the blue writing that announces "edit my information" that takes you to the subsequent web site, the 1st determination is "nicknames", bypass previous that one to the only that announces photograph, click on the only on the top that announces edit my yahoo avatar, then open up the "avatar" save, click male or lady and in basic terms stick to the training it relatively is relatively somewhat elementary, even I controlled to do it. I had 2 tries at it and it relatively is the end result an avatar in my likeness.
2016-10-01 11:45:52 · answer #2 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hah, I wondered that myself. They just seem wayyyy too perfect. It's just societal pressure to make even the most miniscule of things, like yahoo avatars, to be all nicely dressed and aligned and smooth and oh so perfect on the face.. haha... its so sad, isnt it, that society has forced mere internet icons to conform into ideal 'beings'?
2007-02-05 10:40:36 · answer #3 · answered by nietzsche 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It's the only way a person with imperfections can look great
2007-02-05 11:06:27 · answer #4 · answered by cass 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i have wondered that too. You should send a request for that in. Also, why are there no Asian-looking skin colors. That is just prejudice.
2007-02-05 10:37:45 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
I don't know why. I'm still trying to figure out why white girls have brown avatars.
2007-02-05 10:37:42 · answer #6 · answered by Dash Rip Rock 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They are just cartoon like characters.
2007-02-05 10:36:49 · answer #7 · answered by WC 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If thats how you feel OK sure why not
2007-02-05 10:36:28 · answer #8 · answered by chica 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You are so right they are not natural.
2007-02-05 10:42:55 · answer #9 · answered by hdf69 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
its yahoo thats why
2007-02-05 10:36:29 · answer #10 · answered by ???????????????? 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋