When college students are in need of some break from endless amounts of classwork, surfing the internet for some quality memes can provide quite the escape. Meme accounts are pretty common on Instagram and Twitter and can gain hundreds of followers overnight. Some accounts are dedicated to providing content aimed at students of a particular college or university and Winthrop certainly has its own tributes. The accounts @wonthorp_eagles and @winthorp_seagulls are two of the most popular accounts on the market.
The account @wonthorp_eagles claims to be the “unofficial meme account of Winthrop University.” It has over 680 followers and nearly 90 posts. The account has a variety of memes, many which include Winthrop President Dan Mahoney.
The account is run anonymously by a group of admins, presumably they are all Winthrop students. Gold is an admin and frequent poster of memes for the account.
“We started as a small page and grew to share with the rest of the students at WU,” Gold said. “We just want to have a laugh and share opinions.”
Another popular Winthrop-themed meme account is @winthorp_seagulls. They too include similar memes revolved around the student body and the Winthrop famous Dan Mahoney. The account also welcomes submissions and is run by admins as well. One anonymous admin stated that they are the best Winthrop meme page because they “relate better to the student body and have quality memes.”
A spin off account was made based on the memes made after the bricks were stolen from the Winthrop walkway near Digs. The account called @winthropbrickburglarz is managed by a few unknown admins as well, one goes by CEO. A well-known rivalry has evolved between the @wonthorp_eagles and @winthorp_seagulls, and CEO endorses @wonthorp_eagles.
The rivalry between the accounts was challenged when The Johnsonian put up a poll on Instagram and asked the student body what meme page is supreme. 205 students voted overall on the poll.
After 24 hours the results were finalized and @winthorp_seagulls was voted best meme page winning 125 of the votes compared to 80 votes total for @wonthorp_eagles. As a result, @winthorp_seagulls now boasts “voted best Winthrop meme page”.
A few months ago, the accounts had a meme war and students were not afraid to show their favorite account support; many can be seen promoting their favorite page in the comments section of rivalry memes with #teamwinthorp or #teamwonthorp.
Regardless of the rivalry, all involved in the creation and acceptance of submissions for these accounts are doing it just for fun. No matter what side a student is on, the memes on these accounts can be enjoyed by everyone on campus and provide a fun outlet for students to express what it’s like to be a part of the Winthrop experience.
