avatars? c'mon people

Ok, so I need to rant and rave (not that I'VE ever been known to rant and rave) but I gotta ask...what are avatars?!

Those of you who have yahoo know what I'm talking about.

Those of your with yahoo who are, undoubtedly, more intelligent than I and who haven't bothered to waste their time with this quirky feature may not know, but keep up kiddo, you'll catch on.

Ok, so in short, avatars are these little faces that welcome you into your yahoo account. they're also used for yahoo instant messenger, and are shown to the person you're talking to (supposedly to give them some idea of who/what they're talking to, I guess).

But does anyone else see these images as a major blow to their self-esteem?!

I mean, c'mon. Ok, first of all, they little animated people are all hot. Of course. Do any of us really look like those? Take me, for example.

See any similarities? Apart from the fact they we both wear hats, and I SHOULD be standing in front of a ballpark, we're not quite the same. One drunken night I created that little image, and it has stuck ever since. I can't figure out how to nix it.

Which, I gotta say, is probably worse.

If you never stumbled upon this person-creating-dohickey, you're missing out....Literally. Your image looks something like this.

As if we don't feel sketchy enough communicating with strangers via Yahoo! Now we actually have a symbol that says, "yes, I'm not only on a sketchy website, but am pretty damn sketchy myself- even my self portrait is nothing BUT a shadow!"

It's a lose-lose situation.

And for those strangers who DO have these little pictures, you just have to wonder. Ok, first of all, they've taken the time to make one....Internet geek. (Present company excluded, of course- drunken computer access is removed from the record, it says so somewhere in the Constitution.) And if you're flirting with someone who you THINK is a hot guy, just because his little avatar is hot, you're defiantly wrong.

Which brings me to my main point: people should not be able to create these animated images of themselves. We should be fair, and honest, to one another, and yahoo should create an image FOR us, based upon a personality test. And not one with questions like "favorite colo?r" or "favorite food?" They should be REAL questions, like "how many hours do you spend on the internet/night?" or "have you ever dated someone 35 years your senior?" Internet predators and star wars geeks could not conceal their identities when faced with questions like "what does ttys or a/s/l stand for?" or "how many ewoks, total, appear on screen in star wars?"

The answers to these questions would give us accurate depictions of our cyber buddies, and the internet would be a whole heck of a lot safer. I think the average cybergeek would start to look like

or

True, some of these portraits may scare away the late night 13-yr-olds looking to cyber, but I think the greater internet community would be safer.

Ok, trying to stick with my style topic...well, it's about how you look, isn't it? How other people view you? And it's a free service, so it's perfect for broke college kids....so hence, this pertains perfectly to my blog.

Oh, and Yahoo!....call me about this personality test idea. We'll talk.