Swampy Memes Watch

It's that special time of year when grade school and college kids alike rot the teeth out of their heads with candy and questionable life choices. Let's look at some memes! In college it's well known that Halloween is celebrated for the whole month. I went to 8 costume parties in October, none of them actually happened on Halloween! This one is just extra spicy when you know the drama and history that led to this image. Let's just say it references the unsavory election tactics and casual racism that has plagued UF Greek life (and one sorority in particular.)

Well guys, we gave it a good run, but both colleges I belong to (CLAS and CJC) fell short in the month-long madness that was the Swampy Memes page bracket. A great tool for community involvement, members used Facebook's reactions to vote for which college they wanted to advance through each round against a rival college. One would think the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, due to its sheer size, would win outright, but in a stunning upset, the engineers pulled it off right under our noses, even if just barely. This one hurt.

This post is going to be relatively short, but I think it's important to note. There seems to be a schism between the "in crowd" of Swampy memes, people who comment on and create a lot of content. People who know the admins in person or through social media. Then there are the outsiders, people who object to certain content, or, like Daniel Weldon have views that seem aggressive and off-putting. Sometimes I think it's almost better for the page not to approve Weldon's memes, as he becomes subject to the wrath of nearly 30,000 people who have access to his public Facebook and friendslist with the click of the button, people who leave disturbing and violent comments in his posts. I'm not sure what the solution to this divide is, but I hope it's solved before toxic behavior witnessed online spills into real life.

Sometimes local news and happenings can act as a microcosm of nation-wide events. In an earlier blog post we discussed the student election meme war, reactions to Steve Meyer's arrest and pro-Impact vs pro-Inspire memes.  Well, as NYT's Kevin Roose outlines  here  very similar events transpired on twitter and facebook across the United States in response to CNN's investigation of Russian ties. After Donald Trump tweeted a gif of him beating up a referee with CNN's logo superimposed on his head (The clip from from an episode of WWE Trump had taken part in) to over 30 million people, legions of pro-Trump and anti-Trump culture warriors duked it out in comment sections and social media timelines with gifs of CNN logos beating up Trump stand-ins and vice versa.  It seems like the new way to win a public spat is to have the best memes, at least according to the U.S. President. What a reality we live in, huh?

With nearly 30,000 members on Facebook, it's no surprise that Swampy Memes would also generate some traffic on twitter. Here are some Swampy Tweets for your viewing. The swampy UF memes is the best that ever happened — Shaz (@shazmoti) May 25, 2017 ‘Swampy’ UF memes attract more than 16,000 students, alumni https://t.co/juYNnRioTA — The Alligator (@TheAlligator) August 3, 2017 i have this weird mix of fame as 1. the girl who got into cornell 2. the girl who makes those swampy memes — K S K (@anti_histameme) June 4, 2017 The mayor of Gainesville just requested to join swampy memes??????? — Emily (@slleepishwolves) August 3, 2017 i saw kent fuchs in person yesterday and i could feel my brain melting. the god damn swampy memes page has infiltrated my brain — swat (@champagneswathi) August 29, 2017 neither of my memes were approved on the swampy uf memes page and I'm MAD — ❄ Annie @ WHEN WILL SOLEIL COME HOME (@auorlies) June 3, 2017

If I were to pick the phrase most commonly used on the Swampy Memes page to describe our ongoing football season, I think it would be "Dumpster Fire". Alas, not every year can be a Tebow season, but does it have to be this bad? At least our emotional pain has given way to some great memes describing how a lot of student fans feel week after week. That last one really hits you in the feels. Maybe next year Gators!

Nothing catches the struggles of trying to be employable after college like Swampy Memes during Job Fair week. #wasteoftime #butIneedajob A quality Swampy meme to capture the build up towards the first day of Career Show case A post shared by TR (@swampy_memes_watch) on Oct 2, 2017 at 7:50pm PDT #sincerelyme This makes more sense if you know the musical Dear Evan Hansen, but an accurate depiction of resume padding to get that call back A post shared by TR (@swampy_memes_watch) on Oct 2, 2017 at 7:52pm PDT #sadkeanu #joblessforever Leaving showcase with nothing to show for it... A post shared by TR (@swampy_memes_watch) on Oct 2, 2017 at 7:54pm PDT #nonSTEMproblems ...And then being confronted with your friends' success at the technical day of the job fair. A post shared by TR (@swampy_memes_watch) on Oct 2, 2017 at 7:55pm PDT #blankresume And after job fair week is over, you're still left w no jobs or prospects. A post shared by TR (@swamp