7 Memes Depicting the Ups and Downs of Life at MIT Sloan
I’m exploring different formats of storytelling. The focus of this blog is on Memes. Memes are those hilarious pictures you see circulating the Internet. More broadly, a meme is “an activity, concept, catchphrase or piece of media which spreads, often as mimicry, from person to person via the Internet” (according to the incredibly credible source of Wikipedia). Most memes have the standard format of a photo with superimposed text. They’re often very witty and sometimes a little too real.
A good meme is concise, authentic, relatable, and humorous, which makes it a challenge to create. A few tips from my very limited experience:
- Identify not only the story, but the emotion behind the story — are your excited, frustrated, skeptical…?
- Decide on the tone — are you straight-forward, sarcastic, inquisitive...?
- Choose a character that represents both the emotion and the tone by browsing existing memes — caution: this is an extremely fun and addictive exercise.
Here are a few memes I created in attempt to depict life at MIT Sloan. Most of these are context-specific, so I will explain them as we go.
1. Sarcastic Willy Wonka
The meme is often used to question assumptions and highlight the irony in statements and situations. Here, I highlight a common behavior for many Sloanies. Sloan has a no-electronics in class policy, which many of us violate. Not being connected for 80min can be a very anxious experience for some of us. We also seem to think hiding it behind our name card sufficiently masks that behavior.
2. Success Kid
This meme celebrates little wins in the day-to-day life. Here, I celebrate the success of stumbling upon free food at the end of lunch. Sloan has a very active student community, hosting many speaker events and company presentations every day. Aside from learning, a big perk is being fed a delicious lunch.
3. First World Problems
This meme depicts a small frustration or inconvenience in our lives and mocks its triviality. Despite the techy reputation, the IT system at MIT has a lot of room for improvement. One of the common frustrations is how frequently the printers break down, often resulting in additional effort to reopen and resend all those readings back to the printer. Life is rough.
4. High Expectations Asian Father
This meme uses Asian stereotypes and play on words, which frequently includes academic grades and professional achievements. I use it ironically to highlight a Sloan tradition, the C-Function, which occurs regularly on Thursday evenings. C-Functions celebrate Sloan’s diversity by highlighting a different culture at each function. Food, interactive activities, and performances are common components of a C-Function.
5. Skeptical Third World Kid
This meme is used to highlight things we take for granted and ridicule some of the things we say and do. I used this meme to introduce the Sloan Olympics, which is a bi-annual event where cohorts and programs compete against each other in field games. One of the most popular games is dizzy bat, where participants spin around a bat and run across a field, often falling many times in the process. While it sounds like a ridiculous concept, it is a tradition that boosts pride and bonds students within cohorts.
6. Most Interesting Man
This meme follows the format of “I don’t always… but when I do, I…” Here, I highlight one of the evening activities Sloanies engage in. Hong Kong is a less-than-classy establishing near Harvard Square. Their signature drink is the Scorpion Bowl, which is mixture of mystery liquids to be consumed in a communal manner. Given our Type A personalities, we naturally decide to race each other in consuming this mystery liquid. Brain freezes are common casualties.
7. Prepare Yourself
The tagline of this meme follows the format “…is coming”. This is used to express (sometimes exaggerated) anticipation of an upcoming event or phenomenon. Here, I used it to describe the highly anticipatory adMIT weekend at Sloan, where a few hundred eager and newly admitted students flood the campus with a wave of fresh energy. We pass on the Sloan legacy.
On that note, I hope you have enjoyed these memes and got a taste of life at MIT Sloan.
