For those of you who are not familiar with the term “avatar”, it is simply a graphic image of you that goes along with content that you post up online. Many of us who like to post stuff online enjoy having an avatar as part of the content we post, but right now I am thinking: is there more to avatars than just the fun factor?
It goes without saying that visuals almost always enhance a piece of written content. Especially when you are talking about writing on the Internet, graphics can add a lot more color and life to your posts. Anonymity works both as a pro and a con on the Internet and an avatar is a perfect way of having a unique presence online without uploading your actual picture online. Many
content writers use avatars with the intension of giving themselves a more real and human feel on the Internet.
The “human” factor of adding an avatar to your blogs shouldn’t be entirely brushed aside. It gives an interesting image of the person whose work you are reading. And even if it probably is not an actual picture of who they are, it definitely adds to their identity. The other interesting point about avatars is that the blogger can decide exactly how they want to appear on the Internet so the image that you see of the blogger is actually the image of themselves that they choose to show to their readers. Let’s not forget that even if a photograph is used there are enough photo enhancement tools that are available these days.
Many bloggers enjoy having nicknames for themselves and avatars are mostly an extension of that identity that one tries to build online. An avatar means that whatever you do put up as a representation of yourself contributes to how people react to you and your content online.
