Beer Goggles
I’ve been thinking about Avatars. These days you need an Avi for everything.
- Dating sites (not that I’m on any. After, all, I AM a married woman. No really. The lady doth not protest to much. I’m really NOT ON A DATING SITE. I’m NOT. Stop looking at me like that. I’m NOT).
- Linked in
- Gravatar
- Your own blog
Usually, people spend hours, maybe days finding pictures of themselves that are so FABULOUS. These carefully curated photos are selected because they look much better in them than they do in person.
The intention is for you to see their Avatars and think to yourself, ‘Boy, that’s someone I’d like to know/date/talk to. What a friendly open countenance. Nice hair.’
And then, you meet the Avatar in real life and find that the person looks NOTHING LIKE THEIR PICTURE. I know that misrepresentation is one of the perils of online friendship, but still…
Frankly, its extremely disconcerting to be at a party or event, and have someone come up to you, gives you a big hug, maybe even a gooby smooch and announce, ‘Hey YOU. I’m SO glad to finally meet you!’ Only, you have no idea who they are. None at all. Blanks are drawn.
You stare at them blankly, *awkward* and open your mouth, ‘AAAAAAhhhh’, while trying to read their name tag, using stellar peripheral vision plus stunning subtlety and finesse.
‘I’m SO & So. We tweet/talk/message all the time! Remember?!’ They giggle (hopefully ‘they’ is a girl, or else the giggling is a whole ‘nother problem that your weren’t prepared for.)
You look at them, and while double-taking, nearly fail to restrain yourself from blurting out:
‘Say WHAT? Your picture doesn’t show your lady-stache’
You recover, and smiling broadly say, ‘Oh yes! SO nice to finally meet you. I’m not wearing my glasses. My, you look just like your avatar!’
People are treating Avatars like virtual Beer Goggles.
What these non-avatar-lookalikes don’t realize is that just like the beer buzz wears off, eventually someone is going to meet them in person, and realize that they don’t at all resemble their photos.
What would be smart, actually, is if when picking an Avatar, they used a reverse approach. For example, if they posted pictures like these:
Then, when people would meet them in person, they would be pleasantly surprised.
Just as if they were wearing Avatar Goggles. Only with name tags. And Smartphones.
Just an observation.
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