Living Museum of Learning
No One Can Force Him to Change His Avatar
From the very first class, I kept reminding Cloud about one tiny thing.
"When you get a chance, could you change your default Slack avatar?"
"We can do it together."
"Everyone else has a personal avatar."
"You could even use your WeChat avatar."
"It helps me recognize students more quickly."
Every day, the answer was essentially the same.
"I think the default is good."
"Why should I change it?"
One day I watched him scroll through page after page of avatar images.
He looked.
He considered.
Then he chose...
...the default yellow Slack avatar again.
No lecture.
No pressure.
We simply moved on to mathematics and programming.
Several days later, after another class, I casually explained why I kept asking.
"I have quite a few students. A personal avatar helps me immediately recognize who is who."
That was all.
I assumed he would open WeChat, save his profile picture, then upload it into Slack.
Instead...
He opened Finder.
Clicked on an image.
And changed his Slack avatar in just a few seconds.
He had already prepared it.
The picture was exactly the same as his WeChat avatar.
Looking at the new avatar, I noticed something.
"There is a little mouse on the shoulder."
"It looks cute."
Cloud immediately replied,
"I don't like the white mouse."
"I don't know why it's there."
I laughed.
"But it's so cute!"
Somewhere between those two sentences, the conversation had completely changed.
We weren't discussing software anymore.
We were simply talking.
No one can force someone to personalize an avatar.
You can explain.
You can suggest.
You can remind.
But eventually, people change only when they decide the relationship is worth the small effort.
The avatar didn't change because I repeated the request.
It changed because, after four classes together, I was no longer a stranger.