College Meme Groups Are No Joke.
College students aren’t as active on Facebook as older generations, but there’s one thing bringing them back to the social network: private meme groups.
College meme groups emerged in the latter half of the 2010s, with U.C. Berkeley Memes for Edgy Teens being widely considered as the first. It’s also the largest, boasting nearly 200k members. The group, created in 2016, serves as the framework for other meme groups. Today, the phenomenon is omnipresent on campuses both big and small. And they’re no joke. Dr. Karen North, a professor at the University of Southern California, stated in this Mashable article that “College meme groups offer something unique. They’re an outlet for localized, razor-sharp critique with an attentive, and communicative, audience.” Though the pages are flooded with jokes, the feelings, emotions, and intentions behind the posts are very real.
Growing up in the digital age, college students are fluent in meme, and it takes no time to memeify current events. All they have to do is sift through the proverbial filing cabinet of meme templates in their brain and match what’s currently happening to the most relevant meme format. But, the most important factor in determining a college meme group's success is one thing: the content relates back to life at a given school. Therefore, the team of student admins and moderators are crucial to fostering these online communities.
According to Facebook, there are two different roles when managing a Facebook group: admin and moderator. The admin(s) manage all the group settings and the moderator(s) are in charge of the daily operations. Their responsibilities are shown below.
Admins and moderators control the group’s destiny by setting the ground rules that will ensure a safe, healthy environment. Then, they’re charged with enforcing the rules.
As most college meme groups are private, I can only share my first-hand experience as a University of Florida student and member of Swampy UF memes for top ten public teens.
The page is managed by a team of 12 admins and 3 moderators. They establish a set of general guidelines that a member must agree to before joining. For example, rule one states that “memes must be original content specific to UF;” rule three says “do not post advertisement or promotion of events, clubs, etc.” and rule four “Do not be rude.”
But rule eight offers something unique: “Check the About section for more specific rules.” When users navigate to the About section, they are met with more specific rules on how to positively engage with the group. These more specific rules are broken down into three sections, “What can be posted?” “What can you do as a member?” and “What if I don’t like the above rules or how they are interpreted or executed?” These more specific rules are what makes this online community, and so many like it, thrive. The admins have outlined their expectations for members; therefore, everyone is aware of what they’re getting themselves into before doing so. And as long as you follow the rules, they note that the most important thing is to “Have a good time.” And, in this case, 47.5k members do just that.
The focus of memes in the group can range from the in-jokes of respective schools to the typical college clichés: unpleasant dining hall experiences, bad weather, heavy course loads, or cramming for finals. No matter the content, these private groups offer a safe haven for student dissent. For example, the University of Florida recently announced that 2021 Spring Break is canceled, and it took all of about 1 hour for the memes to flood the group.
The meme was born out of several recent blows to UF students’ college experience. The middle portion of the meme is referring to the 2020 gameday protocols for Gator football. And, more often than not, they get even more complex:
If you weren’t a UF student, this meme may not even make sense. But that’s exactly what makes these online communities so engaging for the respective students. In fact, some students go out of their way to check the page daily and stay updated on the posts. For example, following an official UF alert stating that Normal Hall, the education building, was on fire, one user “ran” to the meme page to see how their peers were reacting.
College meme groups have solidified their place in campus life. Every generation has its own way of talking to each other, and today, meme groups are where students feel most heard. As 2020 continues to throw curveballs, the memificaiton of reality will continue to be an outlet for expression by students.
