Campus memes page quickly soars to popular status

The Facebook page TAMU-Commerce Memes has soared to popularity in a matter of weeks, with over 600 likes and many more views since it began around Feb. 9.

Students Justin McGuffey and Colby Charles are behind the page and most of the photos that take light of situations many A&M-Commerce students know well.

"It's sort of like a common ground for students," Charles said. "You can walk up to any random person in the student center or anyone on campus and say ‘What about those geese over by the lake?' We've all at one point or another had a problem with them. We've been really good about being impartial toward fraternities and stuff like that, so it's common ground for anybody. It kind of brings them together in the humorous aspect of what we all go through."

McGuffey said the idea came from a late night in the library. In between studying, Charles was searching through meme pages from other universities when he and McGuffey had the same thought pop into their minds.

"I saw [the UTA meme page] and was talking about it, and it just clicked with us at the same time; why don't we do that?" Charles said.

Both have knowledge of memes – pictures that retain the same theme with one or two alterations to make fun of a specific subject – from various websites. From there, it was fairly simple to take topics specific to A&M-Commerce and apply them to common memes.

"The ideas just started pouring out from there," McGuffey said. "We just kind of applied all of the inside jokes from Commerce through the format of the memes, and it just took off."

The memes range from topics such as parking tickets and the football team to the various ways students spend their weekends in town. All are purposefully blown out of proportion to provide a comedic tone to what might be an otherwise annoying situation.

"The memes to me are snapshots into the life of a student at A&M-Commerce," graduate student Robert Reed said. "Some of the subjects are taboo, but when you look at them and the situations that we find ourselves in everyday, being in Commerce you can't help but laugh. They take what people think, but might be afraid to say, and put it out there for everyone to see."

While memes are designed to take light of the situation, they do present topics that can be viewed as negative. Both McGuffey and Charles said the negative topics become bearable since the meme provides the chance to laugh about them.

"Making light of the situation instead of sitting there complaining about it brings a positive view about some of the issues and things that would otherwise be considered negative," McGuffey said.

Charles said he did not see why anyone would think less of A&M-Commerce because of the topics expressed on the meme page.

"Take one of the huge names in Division I schools, like UT in Austin," he said. "Their meme page does the exact same thing specific to their school. With UT's page doing the exact same thing and no body thinks less of that, I think our meme page, by making light of certain aspects of student life, I don't think it's going to discredit anything."

Reed said he is proud of his undergraduate degree from A&M-Commerce, and, while the memes could have a negative effect, their biggest influence will be in replacing anger with laughter.

"I've been here since 2006 and this school has really transformed since then, and I do not think people give it near the credit it deserves," he said. "With that said, the memes page could have a negative impact if it started singling out certain students or teachers. No school is perfect, and I think that students who are not satisfied with Commerce should try to make the most of the opportunity that they have. As long as no one is personally offended, I think the memes paint a funny, albeit extreme, picture of a student's life at commerce."

Psychology student and Student Government Association senator Wahaj Mandavia said the memes are only negative if that is how they are perceived by an individual.

"If you take the memes as negative, the it will contribute to the thoughts of memes causing A&M-Commerce to be less than what it is," he said. "The memes are not meant to be taken in a negative perspective, but just as light-hearted fun. Also, it could bring the students together because it is something all students can take part in."