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Student profile pictures: embarrassment, regret and nostalgia Grace Aigner, Elissa Eaton and Zea Karmadi

The class groans as the teacher tells everyone to pull out their Chromebooks for a group assignment. As you gather with the people that you barely know, someone finally says that they’ll share a document after an awkward silence. They type in the emails of everyone in the group, and then they type in yours. Immediately your face turns red as everyone in your group is greeted by a profile picture that you thought was a good idea five years ago. They immediately start laughing as you try to explain yourself.

Because they have been blocked from accessing settings on school-issued Chromebooks since 2017, students are stuck with a permanent profile picture: a digital tattoo of their younger, often less mature, selves. This dated image tends to be the first impression anyone gets when interacting with a student’s Google account. Although it may seem lighthearted and funny, not all students are satisfied with the inaccurate image the profile pictures display when compared to their current selves. Here’s what Naperville North High School students have to say about their Google profile photos:

What is your profile picture?

TOMMY MORRISON (junior) Mine’s Shrek. I picked it freshman year because I thought Shrek was funny, but now it looks unprofessional.

DANNY ELOE (junior) It’s a pickle. I don’t know why I chose it. I was weird in 6th grade and I haven’t been able to change it.

SANATH BENJAMIN (junior) It’s a character from Black Ops 3 Zombies. I picked it in 6th grade because I thought it was really cool.

AVA ANGELE (junior) It’s my dog from 6th grade because I liked my dog at that time. I still like my dog, but now it’s cringey.

ADDI CAILE (freshman) Mine’s a selfie of me in fourth grade because we were the first class to get Chromebooks and our teacher said ‘take a selfie for your photo,’ so I did, and now I can’t change it.

ESHANI RAGAM (senior) It’s a Coco Chanel quote because I couldn’t change it since 6th grade. It says ‘the best things in life are free, the rest are very, very expensive.’

CAMPBELL METZGER (freshman) It’s a unicorn, and I would really like to change it to not be a unicorn.

SAFIYA BHANPURI (senior) It’s a picture of me skiing in 6th grade and honestly, it’s not embarrassing, I just feel like I look way different. I look like a baby in that picture.

ANNA BOLLA (junior) It's an ugly rainbow. I thought it was pretty swaggy at the time, but it's not the swaggiest thing on the planet.

How do you feel about your profile picture?

BENJAMIN I feel like it’s embarrassing sending an email to your teacher with a guy surrounded by fire making an aggressive face.

ANGELE I think it’s cringey because I’m 16 years old and my profile picture is a puppy. It also just makes me think of bad times in sixth grade, so I wish I could change it.

MORRISON I just think of what other people like teachers or administrators think when they look at that, what they’ll think of me.

METZGER It’s embarrassing because we’ve changed a lot since elementary school and I don’t want my teachers to comment on it.

RAGAM I was obsessed with [Coco Chanel] all through 6th grade before I knew she was a fascist.

CAILE (freshman) It’s embarrassing, but it’s kind of funny. I don’t want people seeing it when I’m a senior, but I’ve grown to laugh about it.

BHANPURI I don’t like the picture because I feel like I’ve changed and matured from then as a person and in the way I look. It’s a little more childish than I am now, even though I’m still childish.

Do you feel as if your profile picture represents who you are now? What would you change it to if given the option?

METZGER I do not think that my current profile picture represents who I am now. Although I have ideas in mind of what I might want to change my profile picture to, I would prefer it to be simple because the way I express myself may change in the future.

BOLLA (junior) I used to be like, ‘This is the ugliest rainbow I could’ve picked,’ I was so embarrassed, but now I’m gay so it all worked out. [If I could change it,] I would probably change it to something orange because I love orange.

RAGAM I think the first half [of the quote] does represent me, but I’m trying to be less materialistic, so I want to discard the 2nd half.

MORRISON I would have to think about what I would make it because this profile picture does not represent who I am. It was just something funny I chose a while back to change it from the generic "T."

CAILE I feel like my profile photo does and does not represent me. Even though it is physically me, I have changed a lot in five years, so I feel it is incorrectly representing me.

Is there a way to change your profile picture?

As it turns out, there is a way to change student profile pictures on District 203 Google accounts. Joe Jaruski, the Director of IT infrastructure in District 203, elaborated on Chromebook settings and profile changes:

Why are settings blocked for students?

JARUSKI [They were blocked] to ensure timely Chrome OS updates and federally mandated Internet filtering functions correctly. Settings on Chrome were blocked years ago, at the beginning of the program that rolled out student Chromebooks.

Although students can’t change their profile picture through settings on their school accounts, it doesn’t mean that they’ve completely lost the means or the access to do so. By going to or emailing the Tech Office in the Learning Commons, students can make the request to change their student profile picture.

Have you received a lot of requests to change school profile pictures from students?

JARUSKI We rarely receive this type of request. The Tech Support Office at NNHS can help any student change their profile picture.

Love them or hate them, student profile pictures have been a snapshot into the middle school or elementary version of District 203 students for years. Some students are embarrassed by them, others find them funny. Although it’s not likely to be an accurate representation of the student today, it can still bring humor into a school day.