By now, most students have seen or heard about the recent creation of three unofficial Manhattan College Instagram accounts: manhattancollegememes, manhattancollegedankmemes and mc_squirrels. They each provide the community with daily content that is not only relevant to students at MC, but brings a smile to their faces and perhaps some laughter.

Although the owners of each of these accounts wish to remain anonymous, they were all still willing to speak with The Quadrangle and share why they created these accounts and what some of them have planned for the future.

The first account that was created of the three was manhattancollegememes, which was started in Dec. 2016. The owner writes that they decided to start a meme page for the college thanks to a friend from home. “One night a few months ago one of my friends from home who goes to Tufts was showing us the Instagram meme page for her college, so me and a few other friends made meme pages for our schools.”

Three months later, there are now three unofficial accounts. The owner of manhattancollegememes writes that they “think there has been an increase of unofficial pages because with such easy access to social media platforms it’s easier to create new content and get it out to a greater number of people.”

One person who has knowledge of all three accounts and enjoys the content from each one is Emilia Rosaly, a sophomore business major. She states that she has grown to like the accounts because “everybody has something to talk about and it brings people together… It’s like a big family.”

These Instagram accounts may seem small right now, however through the power of social media, they each can leave a positive impact on the college community. One of the ways they can leave an impact is to bridge a gap between college organizations and the student body.

Currently being the most followed unofficial Instagram account, mc_squirrels has been posting daily pictures of the funny and odd squirrels that roam around campus, some of which are submitted by fellow students.

The idea behind starting this account was mainly for entertainment. The owners of this account write “We started the account on the idea that people needed something silly and stupid to brighten their day. What’s funnier than a squirrel chasing a nut, or [eating] an M&M cookie…”

Although mc_squirrels has been successful with their humorous account, they do have their sights set on the future. The owners of mc_squirrels write, “We see a real need at MC to connect the clubs and service organizations together to support the greater Lasallian tradition of giving back. By mixing bits of daily comedy with service announcements, we feel we provide a great outlet to spread the word!”

Mc_squirrels will continue to post daily content with the hopes of having the opportunity to collaborate with other school clubs and organizations.

Aside from mc_squirrels, another account that has gained a lot of attention recently is manhattancollegedankmemes. Inspired by the first unofficial Instagram account, manhattancollegememes, the owners of this account hope to create a place where students can find memes that they can immediately relate to.

The owner of manhattancollegedankmemes writes “That’s where it all began, I had a few ideas of posts to make that were directly related to Manhattan College, and I just went with it. I thought it would be funny for maybe a day, but it quickly blew up, and here we are!”

Now the college community has an array of Instagram accounts they can follow. If someone is in the mood to see a squirrel eat an entire muffin from Locke’s Loft, they can with a few taps. Want to laugh at a typical “college mid-term week” meme? There is an account for that. How about a laugh at some MC-oriented dank memes? There is an account for that too!

In the past, there were unofficial Instagram accounts that were specifically made for MC. However with time, they eventually disappeared. Whether it was because of lack of content, lack of interest or simply the owners graduated, it is possible that the current accounts could stop producing content as well.

Manhattancollegedankmemes’ owner knows that their account, just like the others, may one day come to an end. However, they remain optimistic and write “But until that day comes, I’m just going to focus on making Manhattan College laugh, one meme at a time.”