Using an Avatar

The Teacher Challenge for this week is to write a post about Avatars.  The challenge asks:

Do you use an avatar on your blog – why/why not?  Do you prefer your real photo or a representation?  Explain.

I have not traditionally been a fan of using a comic representations of myself for my digital avatar.  I read a lot of blogs and follow a fair number of people on Twitter.  With a large influx of content and ideas, it is often difficult for me to keep track of who is sharing it.  I always prefer when people choose to use a photo of themselves rather than a cartoon representation because it is easier for me to feel like I have a relationship with that person (see my post on “The New Knowing“).  For me, a name and a personal photograph is an anchor that can use to link online content with the people who have shared it.  I think that digital avatars obscure that relationship, especially when people change their avatars regularly.

One site that I have used before for creating avatars is BeFunky.com.  Although this site is not specifically for creating avatars, it is possible to use their simple photo editing tools to create some neat effects on a picture of yourself.  One of the great advantages of the service is that it is free and you do not need to create an account to start editing photos.  Here are some of mine:

graham_avatar_Cartoonizer_small

graham_avatar_cartoongraham_avatar_inkify

22. January 2011 by Graham Whisen
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