Why avatar's,instead of actual photo?

Witness protection

 

Why do I use a different avatar? Simple: I like black cats. It isn't because I am trying to stay closeted (because I'm not) or anything like that. Every avatar I've ever used on EC has been a black cat. Now I use the same one on all the websites I'm a part of, so my friends from EC can recognize me.

Plus I just don't like any of my pictures - especially not enough to have them represent me to the entire online community.

 

My pic is my avatar and i wanted people to see i can be beautiful :icon_redf

 

My pic is my avatar and I wanted people to see that I can be handsome. :icon_wink

 

Birds rock.

 

Anonymity and security

 

not sure why i have my avatar but you could always have a pic of yourself on your profile wall which i have so its pretty much all up to you.

 

When I first joined EC, I used my avatar because I wanted something that meant something to me, but I didn't want my face out there for all to see. I was confused and kind of lost, and I didn't want people to know exactly who I was just in case there was someone on here I knew. Now, I leave my avatar because I feel like people come to know you by that, but its not about anonymity anymore. I have a photo of me up in my EC album, and I don't have any problem with people knowing about me anymore.

 

Just in case someone recognized me 0_0 and I also don't want stalkers and I really like the movie "Where the wild things are"

 

^^ This.

 

the pic in my avatar is me and a friend. we're both fingers.

problem?

 

My avatar changes monthly pretty much. I have plenty of pictures up in my albums anyway. Always had. Even had my own pictures as my avatar. It's more fun to put random things as your avatar, especially when I make all of my avatars. xD

 

My avatar is me, but I think this is the only site where it is. I've had so
done recognise me from my deviantart avatar before..... That was kinda creepy. I usually use something I've made.

 

My picture isn't me. I don't like me.

So, I have the thing my name is based off instead~

 

My reason for not putting my face as my avatar has nothing to do with fear of the consequences of putting my face out there; I have pictures of myself in my profile, after all. The reason my face isn't my avatar is that I just don't see the point of putting my face as my avatar. You may say the face is more personal, but faces themselves don't tell us much about a person. We associate a person's face with what we know about that person's identity and personality because it's the most easily recognizable thing about someone. Things work similarly on a forum, but we have user-names to differentiate us from each other; the avatar just makes that association and differentiation easier.

So because there's no practical benefit to making my avatar a picture of my face (aside from--possibly--the illusion of me being more personable and open), whether or not I choose something else to put as my avatar is really of little consequence. What difference does it make whether people associate the things I say with a picture of my own face or a picture of a raptor in the middle of philosophical pondering? If anything, choosing an avatar that I think represents a part of who I am (my philosophical and internet-surfing sides) gives people an idea of who I am which I can be sure to tailor so that it is as likely to be correct as possible, whereas if I show my face, people could make all sorts of assumptions about me, not all of which would be accurate

And I'm not photogenic.

 

My pic is something I made, I can't take good pictures because I suffer from various nervous tics and whenever someone aims a camera at me I uncontrollably being making weird faces; my eyes are particularly prone to twitching. As a consiquence there are no pitures of me that I would wish to use as a first impression, I'd much rather have a picture I've taken of something or something I've photoshoped in my free time.

 

I've used photos of myself as avatars before, and I've also used plenty of silly ones like the one I have now. It really just depends on what I feel like, and what's available when I start thinking "hmm, I should change my avatar".

 

Hmmm I don't really know, for one I've always been made opposed to putting my photo on the internet full stop, of the 250 odd pictures of me on facebook, only about 5 were actually posted by me Just my mind set I suppose. As for my current avatar, they are usually just some anime character that I feel either reflects my mood or one which I just like in general or that I admire in some way. Not too Unhealthy...