By Heather Fabritze
Elm Staff Writer
Since October of the fall semester, the Washington College community has seen a rise in Instagram accounts dedicated to documenting various elements of life at WC.
All of these accounts are run anonymously by students attending the College and are unaffiliated with administration itself.
The first account to set off this wave is @wac.affirmations — which started posting on Oct. 11 — an account dedicated to making WC-themed affirmations reminiscent of the trend recently seen on Instagram. The anonymous moderator behind the account takes satirical images and pairs them with hopeful statements related to everyday life at WC.
They primarily started the account because they enjoyed the affirmation trend and felt that they should “take one for the team and start one” for WC.
“I don’t really have a creative process per se, I just think of things that I find funny and post them and hope other people think they’re funny too,” the anonymous moderator of @wac.affirmations said. “I also take DM requests so some of my memes come from other peoples’ brains.”
Often, other students will repost these affirmations on their Instagram stories. The more niche the post is in relation to WC’s own culture, the more likely it is for them to be reposted.
The moderator jokingly encourages students to follow if they have not already due to the coincidental manifestations brought on by the account in the past.
“I think people should follow WAC affirmations because my affirmations work super well, as proven by the success of the men’s soccer team following my manifestations of success for them,” the moderator said.
One of the most recent WC accounts, @wac_elevators_, began posting on Dec. 5. The account’s niche is that they record and review various elevators in buildings across campus, including Daly Hall and Miller Library.
Although the account was started for fun, much like the others, it has unintentionally taken on an element of safety awareness.
“We mainly started the account as kind of a joke for fun…since then we have found some unsettling issues that need to be addressed, like expired inspections, burn[t] out lights, shaky doors, and slipping cables,” the anonymous moderators of @wac_elevators_ said. “So we have continued posting in hopes for these things to be addressed. Our ultimate goal is to make WAC a better place.”
Another account, @wacmilkdrinkers, took the dining hall by storm with a current count of 280 followers. Starting Nov. 22, students could send in photos of their friends drinking milk, which would then be posted on the account with a satirical caption.
The anonymous moderator of this account was both inspired by the other accounts that came before and their own hatred for the beverage.
“The account kind of started as an inside joke amongst some friends,” the anonymous moderator of @wacmilkdrinkers said. “I’ve always had this absurd disdain for milk and so I thought there might be others who thought the same way. And with so many college Instagram pages taking off, I just figured why not make one of my own to jokingly highlight students who didn’t share the same hatred for dairy.”
Freshman Farren Hauer, who was featured on the account in December for drinking a glass of milk with a slice of cake, felt that they were “framed” as a milk drinker. However, they believe that the account and others like it find a way to bring people together.
“I think that these accounts are all in good spirit, and help people connect with one another over shared experiences,” Hauer said. “It’s funny to see someone you know being featured, and I think by now everyone knows about these accounts.”
The anonymous moderator of @wacmilkdrinkers feels the same, and while they are unsure if it should be brought back in the spring semester, they are definitely open to it if there are enough people who want it to be restarted.
“I personally find it as a light-hearted way for people to have some harmless laughs,” the moderator said. “The page belongs to the College more than it belongs to me. Hearing people talk about it, getting involved, and seeing that it brings them at least a little joy is essentially all that it was intended for.”
Many of the accounts’ moderators view this recent offshoot of the WC community in a similar manner and continue to encourage student engagement with their accounts.