Smith College is in the midst of an Instagram renaissance. New accounts dedicated to niche aspects of Smith culture have sprouted up on the social media platform over the course of this semester. The Sophian spoke with four accounts to learn more about what draws students to use Instagram to engage with their community.
@Mealsofsmith was born in early Sept. ’21 when the account runners, Lesbo Admin 1 and Lesbo Admin 2 (who have chosen these pseudonyms for themselves) ate a particularly tasty Campus Center Café meal late at night consisting of BLT sandwiches and french fries. They felt called to praise the café for their delicious meal, thus uploading their first ever post to the account: a photo of leftover french fries in a disposable container, captioned, “campus center fries, pretty delicious!”
Since then they have amassed more than 250 followers and posted more than 150 meals, both their own experiences and submissions sent to them from other Smith food critics. Smith dining services is a contentious issue on campus, making the Admin’s recommendations popular to their student followers, but they made it clear that their goal isn’t to bully anyone associated with dining on campus. “I think that the problem isn’t that the food isn’t good, it’s an issue with dining services being super understaffed. We want to be very respectful of dining hall workers,” said Lesbo Admin 2.
The administrators of @Mealsofsmith shared that a chef who works in Smith dining follows their account too, which led them to try to shift the message of the account away from strictly critical content. “We tend to post things that look bad because of the humor of it, but I feel really guilty about it … so I want to make it a little more positive,” said Lesbo Admin 2.
As Smith meal connoisseurs, both Admins have developed their own thoughts on the best and worst that dining has to offer. They both agree that Cutter/Ziskind and Lamont are fairly reliable, and that Tyler has a good reputation.
If you’re new to their account, check out a few of what they consider to be their “solid gold” material: an Oct. 2 post captioned, “Mmm hair in the leftover king scales ice cream,” (which, they admit, was taken after hours in the dining hall and was most likely the result of heavy student traffic by the ice cream station), and a Sept. 19 post featuring what appears to be an insect, captioned, “extra protein in the chuckett spaghetti tonight!! Anyone know what kinda bug this is?”
Beyond heated debates surrounding Smith’s dining options, the Admins’ goal is simply to entertain and have fun with the account. It has become a natural part of their daily routines. “I discuss what I’m eating with my friends anyway. Whenever I sit down for a meal I say, ‘let’s unpack this,’” said Lesbo Admin 1. Oh, and they definitely want you to return your Ozzies and coffee cups to the dining halls.
In terms of their peers in the Smith-Instagram universe, they are confident their online presence will subsist. “There’s only so many chairs or elevators you can talk about,” said Lesbo Admin 1. “Meals — it’s endless! Next four years, I am going to be eating.”
@Mealsofsmith is in good company, sharing the platform with accounts such as @smithcollegequestionablefits, run by Lucie Brock ’24 and Miranda Olivares ’24. They are also the faces of @smithunofficalweeklyupdate, which they run with the help of their camera person Rachel Freeman ’24. Inspired by a similar account based at Sarah Lawrence College, @smithcollegequestionablefits seeks the most authentic and truly dubious outfits that our campus has to offer. “We want an outfit that someone put on and said, ‘This is it,’ and everyone else is like, ‘This is not it.’ Or like, it might be?” said Brock.
Brock and Olivares highlighted their favorites from the account, including Brock’s Despicable Me minions pants paired with a camouflage shirt, and Alexa Francesconi’s ’24 athletic shorts that read, “unborn generation.” Both passed their rigorous curating method; as Brock described it, “If everything is just a graphic tee that says some dad joke on it, it’s not really questionable.”
Their outfit account has led to increased engagement with the Smith community because of the submissions and funny comments they receive on their posts. “I like the interactiveness that we do with ‘questionable fits,’” said Olivares.
But the team has made more of a name for itself on @smithunofficialweeklyupdate, which was active last semester posting comedic segments about life on Smith campus. When asked about their inspiration to start the account, Olivares explained, “We watched iCarly because it came out on Netflix.” It was clear that Smith needed its own web show.
Freeman described working on Weekly Update through the concept of “burstiness,” which she had heard in a podcast. Freeman described “burstiness” as when you’re riffing with your friends, building on each other’s jokes, and there’s those little moments of comedic gold one right after the other. For Freeman, that’s what makes this show worthwhile: “It’s so fun to be a part of that energy. It feels like school is not creative ideation and not bursty,” she explained.
“Less confesh posts, more Instagram accounts. Actually, no confesh posts, more Instagram accounts.”
Lucie Brock ’24
As veterans of the Smith Instagram scene, all three enjoy using the platform for content creation. “I think it’s really funny and contributes to college culture,” said Brock. They would love to see more accounts running alongside theirs. As Brock requested, “Less confesh posts, more Instagram accounts. Actually, no confesh posts, more Instagram accounts.”
While there is a niche account for anything Smith related you could possibly imagine, some simply want to cause a little comedic chaos — enter, @smithcellectuals. “I’m not sure if I even really count as a meme page in the stereotypical sense, it’s more of what I would describe as a shitpost page,” explained the admin, who has chosen to remain anonymous.
While their posts aren’t always connected to Smith culture, those that poke fun at circulating gossip and recognizable campus icons, such as the confessional, and the mysterious googly eyes that appeared on “Orb” and “Terpsichore.” “I think I really wanted to break into that space that wasn’t totally unoccupied, but a slightly different genre than the Smith College meme page (@smithcolleggmemes),” they said.
While it seems the admin primarily works alone, they do occasionally pull ideas from friends for what to post about, and it has also provided a place for them to vent their own grievances about Smith. They were also introduced to the Confessional through this account, which they describe as a “cesspit.”
Like @Mealsofsmith, they are careful to post to entertain, not to cause damage: “The goal is to have a gentle ribbing at some of the culture and especially the administration, but I never want any of my posts to harm or hurt anyone … The goal is always punching up.” They explained that they scrap about half of the posts they brainstorm or actually make, eventually deciding that they could be too hurtful.
They are especially aware of media outlets’ tendency to latch onto Smith, which they say “hasn’t been great for students.” Their goal is to be conscientious of their influence as a public account on a popular social media platform. “I put more thought into what I put out there,” they explained.
So, why is this burst of Smith student life on Instagram? One could chalk it up to our collective reemergence from a COVID-19-induced hibernation period, or the highly-opinionated nature of campus. These admins show that running their accounts is a fun, easy way to connect with the Smith community.
