The Importance of a Twitter Avatar

For most of the first year and a half of my being on Twitter, I used the avatar of a smiling sun (the one you see in the upper left of this page right now) and not once heard of any negative comments from fellow Twitterers aimed at me. But I had no idea that this had anything to do with my avatar… until I decided to switch to a person’s cartoon face, which sported an expression that could be interpreted as… well, either smart or smug.

Then all of a sudden, hate-filled words were being hurled at me…

A simple “76 degrees in Los Angeles ~” which is  similar to what I had tweeted almost everyday was now perceived as gloating! The accuser was so offended at what I maintain is a neutral statement that she unfollowed me! Another user publicly declared that I was “e-whoring” because I had unfollowed him. (Or as it turned out Twitter Karma had unfollowed him.)

Since I went back to using the smiling sun, people have been very nice again, one even saying my avatar made her feel warm and fuzzy inside. Every time I tweet now, I picture my update’s words being accompanied by my avatar. It’s unlikely that I’ll be sending a condolence message on Twitter… Not the medium for it anyway…