One bad thing about Twitter is that because people have fixed avatars, it's very easy to misconstrue people's tone by looking at their avatar.
For example, because my avatar is William Butler Yeats looking sour-faced, everything I tweet seems a little sour and pouty.
For example, because my avatar is William Butler Yeats looking sour-faced, everything I tweet seems a little sour and pouty.
This avatar, belonging to @SteffanJohn, makes it look as if Steffan is mildly horrified by everything he's tweeting about. :D 
This avatar, by @ishaantharoor, makes it look as if Ishaan is cheerily enthusiastic about everything he's tweeting about!
This avatar, by @trekonomics, makes it look as if he's facepalming at everything he tweets about.
So, sometimes the "avatar impression" can actually be accurate!
So, sometimes the "avatar impression" can actually be accurate!
@EricaGrieder's fur hat makes it difficult to realize she's tweeting from Texas...
...while @wesyang's fur hat makes it easy to believe he's tweeting from Canada!
@MattBruenig's avatar makes him look like John Rawls (instead of like me, which is what he actually looks like)
While @erikbryn's avatar makes him look far more diabolical than he is...
And @neontaster's avatar makes him look rather forbidding...
@dtsmith_sydney just needs a higher-res avatar so we can see that legendary mane of hair up close...
And @mattyglesias' avatar makes it look like he's always tweeting with his kid!
The very best avatar, however, belongs to @originalspin. From a distance it looks like some kind of abstract art. But when you look close, you discover that it is much, much better than that.
Anyway, this has been fun, but Twitter might try adding a feature where you can switch avatars depending on the tone/mood of your tweet...
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