By: Zoe Bernardi, Community Editor
@Umemeportland is the most well known and active student-run meme account for USM. The Instagram account has over 1,200 followers and almost 200 memes that vary from Glenn Cummings, Woodbury and the classic reply-all email responses. The creator of the account prefers to be anonymous as they are just a regular student who lives among us. They too complain about parking, dining hall meals and the lack of heating in Luther Boney.
“I think anonymity is power,” the creator said. “Knowing that I can walk around campus with this secret that few people know about is one of the best things about the page.” then the creator explained. “I can go anywhere on campus and see people talking about the page, or looking at a post I recently made on their phone.” They ended and said, “I also don’t want to be known for the meme page, I do a lot of my work on campus that I am proud of and I feel like revealing that would take away from that.”
The creator said the meme page will run through to their senior year. The account was made for a class project. Umemeportland is not only an A+ account but it was also an A+ grade. “I had always made some memes as a joke to send to my friends I figured, why not make a page for them?’”
The creator attributed their meme inspiration to an earlier meme page “@USMdrovemetomakeamemepage.”
“I have to say there was some inspiration there,” they said. “But it mainly came down to the class project and sharing my jokes about this school.”
They say the followers and supporters help the account get more ideas.
“I’d say what inspires me to keep posting is how much support the posts receive and all the messages people send me.” The creator said, then they added, “I will credit anyone who sends me things that I post or an idea they give me. I mainly try to keep my ideas original to stay unique, though I have enjoyed a lot of the things people send me.”
Umemeportland has recently been able to make content out of actual events happening at school.
“Some interesting predicaments [over] the past year gave me a lot of content. A lot of the time, I’ll find templates for things on Reddit or Twitter and just run with my idea for a meme on photoshop.”
The account has also grown so much since last year when the account was first created, “this year I have doubled my following in a month. With the reply-all emails, Woodbury flooding, the name change being confirmed and every little thing falling apart around campus I have overflowing content.” They stated that with the incoming freshman the account has gotten a lot of new followers.
“I’ve reached a point where campus organizations and faculty members, including professors of the university, are following the page because it has become apart of the social aspect here,” the creator comments. They said their favorite memes are about Glenn.
“Knowing that I can make a joke and post it on Instagram for students to get away from the stresses of being a college student is the best part about the page.”
The creator said they made a meme about Bonnie returning to Sodexo in Brooks dining hall. While waiting in line for food they overheard that a student was talking about it with Bonnie. Bonnie responded to the student by saying that she had seen it and was grateful for the meme.
“It was amazing to see how one post could spark joy and conversation between so many people.”