Influence of Avatars and Images: are you affected?

Originally posted by XxthehoffxX
Just curious what does my avatar say about me a lot of posts here conveying their own opinions on what their avatar means to them what does my avatar mean to you?/?

[edit on 21-10-2009 by XxthehoffxX]

Thats a good question. I would like to know what others think of mine as well.

My avatar was originally one of those old b&w UFO hoaxes, I put a piece of pie in place of the UFO.

It doesn't mean anything. I just thought the idea was amusing - A b&w photo of a slice of pie flying over a house, with the pie being thought of as a UFO.

reply to post by JustMike


Did you ever notice that you and stormdancer has the same avatar? Someone on here also has an avatar like mine. I dont want to be mistaken for that person.

I dont actually know what my motives were in the forming of my avatar, perhaps someone could enlighten me.

Originally posted by LadySkadi

Mike - I love your image. There is so much going on there and on many different levels.

Thank you. I'm glad you like it. I see some conceptual similarities between mine and the one you have with the woman whose dress seems to enclose a Universe. The "creation" or "source of all" theme is a very ancient one and exists in almost every culture.

Originally posted by wonderworld
Did you ever notice that you and stormdancer has the same avatar? Someone on here also has an avatar like mine. I dont want to be mistaken for that person.

Funny you should mention that. It was only about a week ago that I saw stormdancer's avatar for the first time while I was reading through a thread. However, while stormdancer's includes my avatar it also has other elements that have been added in, so in this case at least, I doubt that we'd be confused by anyone. But I follow what you are saying.

Mike

From the same study...

Androgyny and Its Relationship to Perceptions of Anthropomorphism Sex category is another of the most important characteristics that people want to know about others in an encounter.

As with anthropomorphism, little is known about how the attribution of sex category influences perception in graphical virtual worlds. Here, we use the term sex categorization instead of biological sex because we refer to the attribution of the category that would influence person perception when the natural physical body is not visible, rather than the actual biological sex of the individual being perceived. Sex categorization is achieved through the application of socially defined criteria, where one has been determined as belonging to one of the two sex categories, male or female (West & Zimmerman, 1991). In this process, people use gender stereotypes to make a determination as to which category a person, or avatar, belongs in.

Contrary to early predictions that people would not make attributions of sex category in computer-mediated interactions, it seems that in some contexts sex attributions are still made, and questions about sex category are among the first asked in social interactions.

almost two-thirds of participants assigned their partners to a sex category in a text based, task-oriented interaction (though they were not necessarily accurate). Further, sex role stereotypes have been shown to apply in some online contexts. The influence of the avatar or its visual characteristics on the sex categorization process remains unclear, however.

How interesting. I wonder how many people find themselves doing this, as well. I know that I sometimes find myself assigning a perceived gender to posters, based off of avatar design and writing style...

Anyone else?


[edit on 24-10-2009 by LadySkadi]

I picked mine because I want a sense of honor and justice in my life. The avatar intrigues me because he looks postured to defend everything he cares for, but has restraint enough to not go buck wild on something that is small potatoes.

A big part of me would also like to live in a world of adventure, where i'm not stuck repeating the same thing in my life for pieces of green paper.

Another avatar that would represent my reckless side would be something like this guy..

reply to post by masqua


But of course than their is me. Kareem Abdul Jabar in The Stand. I only used this for a couple days. Still have some tweaks to perform. But as my personality is shocking, so are my Avatars.

HEHEHEHEHEHEHE.

A couple I have used and am working on.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/f307b9df4eea.jpg[/atsimg]


[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/35d1d3522734.jpg[/atsimg]


[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/8678b71d863b.gif[/atsimg]


[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/212edd21f66e.gif[/atsimg]


Visually frightening and shocking. Of course I am the ENDISNIGHE

Mine is a picture of one of my favorite authors, H.P. Lovecraft. I love all things cyclopean, and thus express my interest by wasting enough time to post a picture of their creator.



[edit on 25-10-2009 by Yog-Sothoth]

Mine is the logo of the famous drink Jagermeister.
i like both the drink and the story behind it. its about st. Hubert.
oh and i chose it to shake because i like to annoy people (in a good\funny way)
cheers!

reply to post by LadySkadi


Speaking of avatars, Lady... who is that in your avatar picture?

I am asking because it looks like the spitting image of Jane Goldman (AKA Mrs Jonathan Ross), in her pre-flaming-pink-hair days.
And I mean, identical.







[edit on 26-10-2009 by Vanitas]

took mine because my mind is clear, choose your side komrad

Originally posted by Vanitas
reply to post by LadySkadi

 

Speaking of avatars, Lady... who is that in your avatar picture?

I am asking because it looks like the spitting image of Jane Goldman (AKA Mrs Jonathan Ross), in her pre-flaming-pink-hair days.
And I mean, identical.

I've never heard of her...
The avatar is just a cut/crop from this picture...
I didn't have time to jazz anything up! Maybe someday!


[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/63002bf7637a.jpg[/atsimg]

I found the PDF version of the study, linking it here.

Influence of Avatar PDF version

Avatars do influence me, I would think. Not sure in what way, but I'm sure the visual aspect of posting has something to do with what I think of someone, if even subconsciously. I do notice people with avatars more than those who don't, that I acknowledge.

As for mine, I ain't a telling. If you get it, then cool. If not, then you don't. If you do get it, it probably means you are someone who needs to get out a bit more(not unlike myself).

reply to post by endisnighe


Curious. What program are you using to make the multiframe gifs? I've done a bit of animation in the past but never done so with gifs. Is there program that's better than the rest etc?

It's possibly been mentioned before, somewhere before page 13 (i confess, I didn't read them all), but that most of the people replying about their own "avatars" are actually not avatars at all.

if i don't have one, what does that reveal about me, i wonder?

I've never really spent too much time looking at other's avatars.

Maybe now I will start

I do think this is an interesting point. The increasing use and marketing of avatars and emotion simulation devices definitely can have an effect on people. It is impossible to say that this is relevant to every person that uses an avatar, but it most certainly would play a developmental role if a child were to participate in this phenomenon.