Are We Our Avatars?

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This has come to my mind several times now... I have always found on the net, that to be able to connect to anyone, I need a photo. Without that, I tend to struggle to see that typing as being the product of a real, living, feeling person... I can know intellectually that there is another human typing somewhere, but it doesn't resonate with me on any emotional level. I cannot picture them, generally, as anything other than the style of their writing and their avatar...so often, I have been stunned to see a photo of someone, having built up this totally unrealistic impression of them from their avatar...

Does anyone else identify with this?

Sort of. I had a picture of me for my Avatar for a while, but then I changed it to the Aspie one, which I now use on all the forums I occupy!

i usually feel like whatever i'm listening to at the moment so put it into my avatar, now it just happens to be enslaved, ruun

I loved ALF and strongly related to him. So he is the ideal avatar for me But I prefer to see the real person in their avatars.

I was KBABZ age 16 when ALF first came on the ait in 1986.

Yeah. I identify the member with the avatar.

The title of this thread made me giggle, because I thought of a certain member whose avatar got him banned.

But, yes. I get confused when people change their avatar because I identify the person with the picture.

Was this someone with a new avi? In the last couple of days?

Maybe I need to change the title of this thread... I suggest people read my initial post, as I can see some have simply read the title and answered and not read my post! lol. It is not about your avatar, it is about how you connect others with their avatar and whether you are able to connect to someone as a human being, beyond an intellectual level, if you don't see a photo of them...

I identify each member by their avatar.

Mine is not me, but represents a large part of my life. It is a picture of my Desert Rosy Boa (his name is Han Solo), and snakes are one of my major obsessions. I am especially fond of native Californian herps, and I own seven snakes as well as a bunch of fish tanks.

EDIT: I'm usually not too suprised after seeing real pictures of people on forums. Before they post their pictures, I feel like other forum users are sort of just like "characters" I can interact with, but not really people. They really only seem human to me after I know what they look like. I've been talking to an online "friend" for at least three years now, but he has never shown me a picture of himself so he is more like just an "entity" to me rather than a person. It's kind of hard to explain.

Lets see..the reason for my avatar is I have made hundreds of sock monkeys..(it's my main fixation I guess)...so it is a good representative of who I am as a person, but the monkey in my avatar is not one I actually made..it just happened to be the right size to be used as an avatar...eventually I will replace it with one I actually made...or maybe switch them out from time to time..unless I can peeel myself from the fixation on aspergers and this message board.

I don't mind this monkey too though..he is a vintage monkey named Poxy because he is covered with spots.

I hope no one thinks I'm Faris as a Red Mage.