Avatars in Forums

Avatar usage in forums is the earliest known computing use of avatars. Since inception, avatars consisted of what is most similar today as "emojis." They did not represent the user so much. They more so showed a specific emotion at a given time of the user. Avatars today are the best thought of as a representative image, usually in a square format. Avatars have come to become fully customizable by the user, even becoming animated with modern day .gif formatting. Avatars today have made their way into other online mediums such as in chat rooms and in instant messaging programs.