Most Marymount students have seen the username “marymountmemehattan” pop up on their Instagram feeds at some point or another. The account was originally the brainchild of Jaswin “Billie” Sangha, who started the account anonymously with humorous posts based around Shawn Mendes. The memes were commentary on life at Marymount, and after Billie graduated, she passed the account on to a new (also anonymous) student. This new account owner has switched the meme format to being based around Tom Holland as Spiderman, but otherwise, the account has remained consistent. 

During the week of the bomb threat, Memehattan (like many others) addressed the consternation and confusion of the student body in a post that discussed how many members of the Marymount community had sent the account messages regarding the week’s events. The Monitor has obtained an interview with the anonymous administrator of the account. Note that some responses have been edited for clarity.

The Monitor: What do you feel your role is in reflecting the feelings of the students of Marymount?

MarymountMemehattan: I don’t think I really have a role doing that, it just happens because people relate to the feelings I share and some of my posts reflect that. I only focus on my perspective… Sometimes I ask people for their thoughts on a topic that is impacting all of us because I’m curious and creating dialogue around it seems important.

TM: You said in a post that you want to make sure that people talk to the correct channels about the things that are happening. Who would you consider the best people to talk to?

MMM: Depending on the issue, there’s a department for everything. And we have an elected body of student government that is supposed to act as a liaison for everything from the food we eat to clubs that get to be made, campus events, safety, etc. From there, there are offices and office hours for relevant staff or department heads. All of these people have emails and I would like to believe people will utilize them and not only let their feelings fester online. The Monitor is there too! You could talk to the one publication on campus dedicated to reflecting student feelings.

TM: We do try to get people to talk to us! Do you feel that you have any kind of influence over the students?

MMM: I definitely think the account has an influence because memes are a very popular way to convey ideas or feelings, and there’s been a following developing for a couple years. Word of mouth, relatable content and the anonymity led to that influence, I think

TM: Moving on to the bomb threat; tell me a little bit about your involvement in the spreading of information and opinions during that.

MMM: I just read and heard a lot of discussion going on about it and was wondering if anyone had brainstormed any solutions or changes. I know a lot of people see my story and it’s kind of like a bulletin board to see how people who answered a poll or question feel and what actions they think need to be taken. It can be valuable for whoever sees it (admin, a monitor reporter, SGA). It’s inappropriate to make memes or light of the situation so I wanted to be productive and proactive and ask people what they think needs to happen regarding safety.

TM: What else would you like the students and general Marymount population to know about you?

MMM: Just that I really enjoy being able to capture my experience in a funny or silly way and I appreciate people who let me have fun, or tell me how much they love it. I hope people know I’m trying to keep it both wholesome and honest but not to assign it any significance or responsibilities beyond being one person’s meme page.