With a few mouse clicks, Tyler Perrino created what he intended to serve as a small forum for close friends.
Just a day later, his “Ohio University Memes” Facebook page had been “liked” by more than 5,000 people.
Perrino, a senior studying advertising, developed the page after viewing a similar one created by students at the University of Illinois.
“These (memes) are something that everyone can relate to,” Perrino said. “They have to do with Athens or OU. It’s like a shared experience that we all have and are putting humor to that.”
A meme is any idea that goes viral on the Internet, Perrino said. It can be as simple as a hashtag, but the most common memes are pictures accompanied by humorous text.
Although memes have recently received recognition from the Facebook pages of several universities including Miami University, Perrino said they are nothing new to the cyber world.
“Those (memes) have been going around on the Internet for years, I guess, but they’re just starting to break into more mainstream media,” Perrino said.
Matt Klodor, a 2011 OU graduate, said he also jumped on the meme bandwagon and posted a meme of his own to the page.
Some of the most popular OU and Athens jokes among the page’s followers include Campus Care, OU’s student health center formerly known as Hudson;
Jefferson and Morton hills; and university dining halls.
“I love the (memes) with college freshman,” Klodor said. “I think it’s just hysterical because we all remember those awkward freshmen when we walked around campus in the fall.”
However, some experienced meme viewers claim that the page misunderstands the meaning of the idea.
Alex Fiehrer, a sophomore studying actuarial science, said he became annoyed with the memes when students began making them incorrectly.
“They’re doing the memes wrong,” Fiehrer said. “A meme has a specific point that they’re trying to get across, and people are misunderstanding the point that they’re for.”
The Internet phenomenon even caught the attention of OU’s Dean of Students Ryan Lombardi. Lombardi said the memes first came to his attention after someone posted one about him on his Facebook wall.
Although many of the memes specifically target the university, Lombardi said he does not think they represent formal feedback from students.
“I kind of take it mostly as students just having fun. I don’t take it to be a whole lot more than that,” Lombardi said. “I don’t think their intent is any type of official feedback.”
sg409809@ohiou.edu
