Why do people show their faces on some social media sites, but not others?

[Anonymous]

When I'm on Instagram most people show themselves, when I'm on Reddit sometimes I'm the only one in a subreddit with my face showing, lol. On Gag some do show themselves and some don't.

Why is Reddit full of weird cartoon avatars?

Is there a good reason to hide on there?

[PrettyPriya]

I used to have a profile picture on this site. That was a mistake. Since then, I do not put one up. I got far too many pervy DMs than I would care to mention. So, that is my reason. Those that I have grown close to on this site have seen me, heard my voice and have other personal ways to contact me offsite.

That is the main reason why most of the girls do not have profile pictures here. We get bombarded with DMs that are unsolicited and unwanted. Now, I will have to say that after being given moderator status, that did curb the unsolicited penis pictures and sexting messages quite a bit.

That still will not persuade me to put mine back up. Just a month ago, I put a photo up and guess what? Within 30 minutes I had all sorts of DMs from guy users that were not just the casual "hello".

Others have their own reasons, this is mine. I am not here to be in DMs talking about sex. I am happily married. Even though my bio won't update currently (there is a bug admin is working on), if it said that I was married, how many guys do you think would even read that, let alone respect it?

[Asker]

Thanks for your response, but I thought that you have the option here to only receive personal messages from people that you follow.
Couldn't you just have your picture up and choose to only follow people that you know from various conversations?
I imagine that might slow down the unwanted sexual messages because that's why there's privacy settings I believe.

[PrettyPriya]

I am an Uber Moderator. I like to have my DMs open because if a user needs help (this just happened 20 minutes ago) I can get their message and take care of whatever issue they are having.

[Asker]

I can see why it's necessary for you to be accessible to everyone, but most other users should just ignore follow requests from random users they've never interacted with in my opinion.
Then it's weird because everyone on facebook and Instagram shows themselves, but on Reddit most of them hide. I feel like it's just a trend. People want to follow the majority maybe?

[PrettyPriya]

I am not too familiar with Reddit. I trust you are correct. I find most users here, or at least a good majority, do not show their profile picture. I'm sure there are reasons I have not thought of. Perhaps it is a follow the majority as you pointed out.

[Asker]

Possibly.
I know that people seem to argue and say rude things on every social media platform, whether their faces are showing or not so I don't buy that people need to hide to be rude on reddit (Maybe some do). There's also lots of nudity on reddit so maybe some people are scared that their nudes will show up on their profile or something?

[PrettyPriya]

I would only assume that if you are going to share nude photos, you should be prepared for the consequences. Then again... what some people do for attention these days and then regret it.

[CoolCatMar1]

Yes this is soo true but i try to block such guys

[CoolCatMar1]

They are soo annoying

[CoolCatMar1]

I use my photos everywhere. My Instagram is public because i will make it soon a professional account because i am working at a nail salon and maybe i will be promoting the salon or the products it uses. I like to have my photos on GAG because i want people to not feel the anonymity when they chat with me. And who cares about the creeps. They are in real life as well. We can't hide from that anyway.

[Levin]

Yeah, it's a bit inconsistent with me, too.

I don't on most, but I do on some.

I used to on here, but I've been here for like 12 years.

Anyway, there's a bunch of nasty freaks on here, so I won't on here. Gag used to be less of a twatfest.

Generally, I try and protect my privacy. There was also an article not long ago that some fairly shifty companies have harvested peoples' profile pictures from social media websites and used them in their facial recognition technology. Nasty and presumably illicit, stuff.

[Rockstarrrrr]

I think peer pressure? They see what most people do around there and then do the same... I totally agree tho, the Reddit avatar thing is annoying... Sometimes you don't even know if they're a guy or a girl lol

[Asker]

That's how I feel, the avatars on Reddit seem like they're designed for kids or something, and I feel very disconnected from the other people there. I'm not sure of the thought process behind those, but I guess it works.

[xxnostalgiagalxx]

A long time ago it was considered risky to put any real information about yourself online- including personal photos, your first name, etc. Facebook and Youtube changed that with time, amongst other sites. There were still sites like MySpace and dating sites where you were supposed to at least show photos, but as time went on more and more sites dedicated to revealing personal info became popular. The reason why it was advised against sharing personal info (and was frowned upon to some extent) was mainly due to sexual predators and other creeps, hackers (doxxing), terrorists, and other safety reasons. Avatars were sometimes a person's face, but were usually an image of the user's choice, meant to be their face to establish an identity whilst protecting the anonymity of the person behind the username. Reddit using little characters establishes a consistency in people's profiles, giving the website it's own culture, whilst also trying to protect users from using photographs of themselves and other images that other users might judge them on (for example, from thinking that their anime avatar is cringey). Now that people are more public with their real selves online, all the problems the mid-internet tried to avoid have come about and the world is more dangerous as a result.

[Cynicaldreamer]

I don't show any aspect of myself online, especially on here! Why?
Too many creeps, weirdos, and judgmental people that focus more on appearances than what a person has to say.

I used to post pictures on Facebook years ago when I was in college. But as I got older, and I'll be honest, realized that I'm not exactly attractive, I posted less and less on there until I stopped putting pictures of myself online. Social media can really be bad for your self esteem and confidence.

That and when I've shown people my real life pictures, they either stopped talking to me or ghosted me... so of course that didn't help my self esteem. So now if people want to get to know me, they'll have to deal with my avatar instead.

[AsaKyo]

I pretty much never use my face as a pfp or show off my appearance on social media because I just don't feel the need to and most people would find me ugly anyway, so I want to save people's eyes lmao

[Asker]

I respect your decision, but sometimes I feel like Gag needs cool people who look different. There's a theme of rating and judging people here according to one standard, but in real life there's an endless variety of humans who are beautiful in different ways.

[melanieeeB]

I don't mind having my pics on Instagram and what's app cause I know who has my number and who is following me. I would never show my face or real name on here cause here are a bunch of creeps! And many strangers

[Asker]

I hear you, but those other apps are full of the same people that are here and many, many more.
I guess you just aren't interacting with them there unless you're joining in to conversations in comment sections etc.

[melanieeeB]

Nope I ain't. I'm private on Instagram and I don't use other stuff. If I would, I wouldn't use my pic

[DarkCarousel]

I used to have a profile picture up on here— but too many creeps exist here and I’d rather not put a face to a “name.” It also gives an illusion of familiarity to people who don’t really know you and has caused some infringement of boundaries.
As far as other social media, like Facebook, I may use a picture showing my face because I only have friends and family on my page.
Some people are more private than others and I can’t really speak for them.

[JPresidente]

Reddit if full of freaks so you don't really know. Some cartoonish character looks male but is really female and vice versa and some have beards on them and others don't. You could be talking to a dude who is pretending to be female (although that happens here some, it's rampant on Reddit). Also, the people in big cities that may not have a large circle of friends tend to put their face out there as opposed to people who live in a small community and could be recognized.

[Nomina]

I think it would have to do with the culture and nature of the place.

[Asker]

I guess so.
Reddit has a lot of controversial and sexual subreddits. I guess some people don't want to be seen on them. Gag is kinda in between I guess because there's a sexuality section here where people give private info, but I thought that's what the anonymous feature is for. I still don't quite understand why they would be seen on facebook and Instagram but not here.

[Nomina]

I can't speak for everyone but I show myself on Instagram and Facebook and not on here for privacy. The people who follow me and whom I follow on both social media platforms, I know them and they know me.
I don't know the people here. I don't want random people knowing my social media, I guess, including my face which can be tracked down to my social media... I think... I'm pretty sure. I have shown my face here for barely a day, then I was like "naaaah".

It's a good question, though. It isn't as though my social media is all that personal in terms of what I show. So why couldn't I show my face here? I don't know. But I'm still not convinced to do it, lol.

[Asker]

Hmm.. interesting.
Gag seems open to either way, but on Reddit I feel like an absolute rebel for daring to show my face around all of the people behind funny cartoon avatars. It almost feels like I'm doing something crazy there, lol.

[Nomina]

Be daring! Someone's gotta start, you rebel you 😁

[Anonymous]

Funny that people that complain about anonymous users usually have no profile pic and use a generic username, so in other words they are anonymous. Hypocrites.

[Asker]

I've witnessed that on Gag before as well.
Ideally I would like everyone to at least have a profile picture of themselves because I just think it's more fun to see who you're interacting with. It's a better experience. Some people (Not all) would likely be nicer if they were representing themselves on here. Then limit the anonymous feature so it only works in the sexuality section. That's how you truly cut down on the trolling overall, but yes I agree that having no profile picture here is still anonymous, and the arguments between the anonymous users with no profile pictures is problematic.

[Asker]

*Arguments over who's more anonymous when they're both hidden that is.

[ArtemisSilver]

I like to keep my irl and online personas separate. My shit posting is almost like journalling or reflection on subjects for me rather than to be taken 100% literally as my true point of view.

[Guy13]

I do not like to have my personal picture on the internet. But I’m not Anonymous

[LegendaryDater]

Guessing privacy concerns. I know I don't want my face out there.

[lorenzomichael]

Because there wanted by law enforcement somewhere, they just forgot where.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't because people can track you down

[artsy_dragon]

I'm not sure now lol

[Asker]

Me either, lol.