How important are avatars here ...?

Question

in helping you form a mental image of a certain person? I mean, each one of us projects a certain type of personality through his/her questions and answers. Does this personality sometimes clash with the mental image you form of the person according to their avatar? Have you ever sensed a discrepancy between mental image and personality of any of the users here? How important is it to you to reconcile both images in your mind, and does that affect your perception of other users here in any way?

AA, thank you dear you are so sweet, and your little princess/sofa spolier is adorable too masha2allah! However, I have just one question please ... why is it that everyone imagines me in a certain way and is so surprised when they really see my picture?!! Exactly what kind of monstrous image do I project here?!! :D

Answer 1

Farah, i always thought of you like a friend of mine from Mansoura- shes one of the kind people i know in the world and i dont know why i just related your image to her, any way when i seen you, you didnt look like your image of your answers and questions that i built in my mind- i was really surprised at how good looking you were and your cute farah that is edible -mashallah Allah Akbar

Most the answers i have seen on face book and im sure they have seen me the group on facebook has 30 members now. Yet there is not a many females joined as i thought.

One user i would really like to meet having seen his picture on facebook and seeing how kind and smiling he is, is Saeed H. I like that fact that i can now relate who people are because of seeing the real pictures, its better than the avatar- theres still a few members that i would like to see on face book, to see more of the real them.

Since i seen the real pictures Kasandra, Eman G, Rana are so lovely and sweet and caring that i really enjoy seeing them on facebook rather than here, here is for answers and questions but seeing someones actual picture is so much better x

@ farah- mashy i will tell you but dont go getting big headed on us, because your very mothering- in a nice way - when you see you and find our that you are attractive, young and fit mashallah then its like darn- is that really her- and because you are so humble and you posted alot of questions and answers that dont make you sound attractive then , when you see you it doesnt fit the image you gave of yourself- x

Answer 2

It is interesting that you asked, because initially, i didnt want to have an avatar and i originally protrayed myself as a man because I feel that my views are pretty strong and if my avatar is one cutesey girl, i may not be taken seriously. (discrepancy). Then, I stumbled onto avatar and couldnt stop playing with it! It is fun and I feel that at an unconscious level, it does project how I see myself or at least I fancy to be. But this does not change my opinions and I normally read the answers first before taking a look at the avatars, so to answer your question, no it does not affect my perception of others here.

Answer 3

A great question sis'! I do think that avatars and even user names make us from an an impression of the user, even though it may just be subliminal.
It took me a long while to to find "my" avatar for I wanted something that identified me and hopefully went with my user name.
I chose this one, for I love the colour blue,hence my user name Sisterblue ,which actually predates Yahoo Q&As by about 20 years!
I got the "nickname" when I had to fill in for a sick back up singer in a touring reggae group back in one of my "former life" in the music industry.
All the girls were Sister Cedellea,Sister Martha etc.etc.as Rastafarians refer to each other this way and someone began calling me Sister Blue in reference to my Aussie background, as "Blue" used to be a very common nickname for anyone with red hair and mine was a sort of burgandy at the time.
So I became Sister Blue and then when I needed to think up something for Q&As, it came to mind.
So hence here I am Sisterblue.
I selected that particular shot (which of course is not me), as the way she is gazing into the distance reminded me of my love of Egypt's ancient past and my hopes for my future here in Egypt.
As the model is wearing a form of hijab it also gives an insight into my faith and love for Islam, so on that premise it seemed to me the right avatar.
I just couldn't stand those ever so cutsey Yahoo choices that make everyone 4 choice clones, aged under 18.
I had my bro in law (who is a well known photographer) take a shot of me doing an impersonation of my avatar. with the intention of showing you the real me and I posted it as my primary pic' at the weekend.
Its weird and rather funny that I just didn't feel comfortable with it and only had it posted for a day or so.Even though it is actually a very, very flattering picture of me and evidently good from a photographic perspective as he is using it to enter an Italian worldwide photographic competition.

Answer 4

hi Farah, i will be honest with you from the biginning.Yes the mental image of a certain person play a major role here,well we can say in some degree in order to be fair.
why? bz we are human my dear. humans by nature do not feel comfortable when sth is hidden from them. in other words it is curiosity.it happens unconsciously that every one of us projects a certain type of personality through someone else's answers and questions.
somtimes this personality clash with the mental image we form of the other person bz as human we look for perfection. speaking for myself, yes i believe that the avatar gives an idea about the person's personality and his/her social and cultural background.
but i don't think that anyone of us have the right to judge peolpe from their pictures.
if you want to know more about this topic you can have some reading in psychology.it's relly helpful
before to say goodby i say 'tabaraka Allah Ahsanou al5ali9in' the girl is soooo beautiful wearing alkhimar.....

Answer 5

I was thinking about something similar. I was thinking if everyone changed their avatar to an actual picture of them selves would peoples answers and questions change as do they hide behind their avatar and can answer more openly about things.

I do look out for that little girl with head scarf and know that you are around and when you changed recently i got really confused and when you changed your name and image well i thought i was going insane and thought you had disappeared.

Answer 6

Well for me avatars are a quick way to know who asked a q, they don't hold any resemblance to the mental image i draw for each one of you. Still, i have seen quite a few number of the people here and there does seem to be a bit of a resemblance to the real person.

What i care about more is the name each one chose for themselves it gives me a hint on who they r or what they r trying to say.

As for me....... well u saw me in person, what do u think??? Do i look anything like my avatar?????

Answer 7

I believe each avatar is conveying a message- sometimes that message is intentional. But not always.
I think people inadvertently pick avatars that represents at least a part of their personality. I used my own picture before but now I am going with the Cookie Monster.


PEACE & LUV

Answer 8

well , Farah, i ve got to say it's useless, but it may say a little about personality, and personality goes a long way.
And yes it soemtimes clashes! lol
And yes i felt dicrepancies :D
It is not very important to reconcile both images in my mind it's just if i get control over the crazy monkey that jumps in my head asking these stupid questions about avatars and real images..

Edit:
@Arabian Dune:
dude you have to stop watching horror movies so often.

Answer 9

:D ohh Farah , u really should go to sleep :P

but good question bardo :)

ya , sometimes the avatar make u think wrong abt this person , or maybe u like that person from his/her avatar,

But for me , I dont judge the person from his avatar , I can tell u abt that person from answers , but I still also need to talk or chat with him/her to have a better look ,

Abt ur avatar , I like most the small girl with el hejab :D
When i saw her , I smile :D , she is cute masha Allah,

Take care , wish u all the best ,

Answer 10

I feel comfortable when I answer that little cute veiled kid.

Now, how am I supposed to feel when I answer a white horse and it is so beautiful though ???!!!! :D

For my avatar, I tried to make it as much as possible to look like me, I have nothing to hide. Just it is not the common way to post real pictures.