With the popularity of meme culture and social media, anonymous Mississippi State University students and faculty have started creating unofficial campus Instagram accounts. They serve as distractions from class lectures and are a popular topic of discussion across campus.
@thefallofallenhall, one of the most popular MSU-themed accounts, posted its first photo in April 2016. For anyone who has ever had the pleasure of attending a class in Allen Hall, it is easy to guess what kind of photos are posted on this account.
From patchwork floor tiles and broken desks, to discarded doorknobs and mysterious holes in the walls, @thefallofallenhall provides humorous explanations for the destruction of one of MSU’s older academic buildings.
A post of a staircase with the handrail resting on the ground, obviously somehow having come unattached from the wall, is accompanied by the caption, “Stay safe out there kids.” Another post of a chair slanted sideways due to a broken leg is captioned, “Dance like no one is watching.” Whether these posts make students laugh or simply roll their eyes, 1,452 Instagram users have found a reason to follow the account.
Another class favorite, @msstatesquirrels, is an account documenting the overpopulation of squirrels on MSU’s campus. Lately, the account has combined pop culture references and MSU’s squirrels in order to create somewhat-clever memes. While @mssatesquirrels has not gained the same grand popularity as the previous account mentioned, it has 655 followers and counting.
An account that frequently interacts with @msstatesquirrels is @mississippi_state_universitree. This page is all about the trees that make MSU beautiful, and possibly the most entertaining aspect of the account is when @msstatesquirrels comment on their posts.
On Sept. 28, @mississippi_state_universitree posted a caption that claimed MSU’s trees are better than Ole Miss’s trees, to which @msstatesquirrels commented, “I am able to concur with this.” The trees on MSU’s campus are grandiose and everywhere, providing this account with an abundance of potential content.
Lastly, an up-and-coming account, @limebikes.of.msu, is making its way into students’ Instagram feeds. This account documents the unusual placement of the campus’ newest mode of transportation, Lime Bikes. The account features photos of bikes hanging from trees and abandoned in other obscure places.
The captions are often short remarks personifying the bikes. A few read, “A moment of silence for our fallen brother,” and, “Poor lonely lime bike left to face the world all on its own.” Both of these posts featured a Lime Bike left alone on the sidewalk, the first actually laying on the ground and the latter abandoned outside of a building.
Lime Bikes, like trees, are in great supply on this campus. Students can watch this account to see the various ways students desert their Lime Bikes.  
Whether it is deteriorating classrooms, abandoned Lime Bikes or something in between, Instagram has your fix for MSU-related social media entertainment. Keep an eye out for campus oddities or even normalcies, and maybe you too can document an unofficial campus phenomenon via a simple Instagram account.
Note: none of the accounts mentioned in this article are official affiliates of Mississippi State University.