UM memes a medium for shared student experiences

Not only can you stalk people, keep in touch with friends, post videos and play games, but you can also read memes on Facebook.

Not just any memes, but UM memes.

College memes parody ideas via images and text. There are various memes on websites like memebase.com and 9gag.com. I love memes and I love UM. Therefore, this UM Memes Facebook page is pretty exciting for me.

I’ve seen extremely funny and entertaining ones such as the “success kid,” “terrible teacher” and “uber frosh” memes. Then there is the “gets on a machine in the Wellness Center … last person was weaker than me”-type meme.

However, I’ve also seen many that can be very insulting to some groups of people. For example, anything using the “high expectations Asian dad” or “ordinary Muslim man” is probably going to reinforce some kind of racial stereotype.

Currently 1,462 people like it and 1,051 people are talking about the Facebook group. It’s creating a lot of buzz. Its popularity is definitely spreading through social networks.

I feel that its success can be attributed to two main factors: UM students can relate to memes and we can contribute to them. We know what it’s like not being able to connect to Wireless Canes, not having our passwords saved on Blackboard and eating at Chartwells.

We can use our creativity and humor to connect through a website as a student body.

Michelle Lock is a freshman majoring in public relations.