By Ava Thompson
Snaps of unusually confident squirrels. Photoshopped memes of Nicki Minaj posing near University of Maryland campus landmarks. Sparkly emoji-covered pictures sharing students’ hopes for the semester. And silly commentary on local benches. Yes, benches.
As the pandemic continues, UMD students have used these images to garner over a thousand followers on anonymous Instagram accounts — and the number of pages keeps rising. Although the account themes are very different, they are all helping to bring students together.
Senior psychology major Matt Hernandez and senior English major Flo Petite run @college.park.affirmations together. They post optimistic statements submitted through Instagram direct messages.
Petite said she hopes sharing entries on @college.park.affirmations is helping students connect after a year of isolation.
“We probably got over 100 submissions easily,” said Petite. “They were like, ‘I’m so lonely’ or ‘I feel like I can’t (meet) anybody on campus,’ and we’re posting the same stuff. I sort of like connecting people and I was starting to feel like God or something (since) no one knows who I am.”
Some accounts have lasted over a year, and some are as new as a month old. They have gained unexpected popularity over campus, but many of the account owners initially wanted to remain anonymous.
Freshman government and politics major Guinivere Roberts, the account owner of @benches_of_umd, said she started posting because she thought the benches at UMD were unique and funny. After her account started to become more popular, she said she found it appealing to remain anonymous among accounts she figured were run by older students. Still, Roberts said she thought some of her followers might be trying to guess her identity.
“I wonder if people like to think they know who I am because there are some people who comment on every post or consistently respond to the story or certain things,” Roberts said. “It makes me wonder if they have a theory.”
But Lauren Sullivan, a freshman engineering major, said she comments on most @benches_of_umd posts despite not knowing the account owner. Sullivan said the meme accounts have made her feel more included in the community.
“It’s a good conversation starter because I know a lot of freshmen who sometimes find it’s hard to meet people and start conversations,” she said. “Sometimes people would come up to me and be like, ‘Oh my gosh, have you seen the UMD Barbz account or squirrels account?’ and then you can start a conversation off of that. So I feel like it helped me meet a few people.”
Account owners said the popularity has come with consequences. Some said they have been overwhelmed by submissions, and they had to reject entries due to privacy concerns.
Senior government and politics major Logan Heller, the account owner of @umd_squirrels_, said he can only pick “the highest quality photos” of the chaotic squirrels around campus. He said the squirrel in his favorite post, “Scary Sundays,” stands extremely close to a student.
“It has such energy and you’d expect a small little squirrel to be terrified of a student, but it’s on the hind legs. It looks strong,” Heller said. It’s like ‘I’m equal to you,’ and it’s like the Maryland squirrel thing. They just go after everyone.”
Meme accounts may create traditions at UMD that remain post-COVID-19, Keller said. The senior said he is glad to help people come together — even if his methods are untraditional.
“I guess something that we wanted to do was help people be able to connect to the campus,” he said. “And if that means physically looking at the squirrels, then squirrels here are unique.”
Featured photo: UMD squirrels look ready to fight in a collage featuring images from @umd_squirrels_. Graphic by Ava Thompson.