It is clear even from a short walk across campus that Northeastern University students, just like other students around the country, are always on their phones. Whether they are on social media or texting with their friends, students use the internet as a way to come together and connect. A lucky few may even get featured on the Northeastern Instagram account, @northeastern. A feature, whether you are walking to class, sitting in the library, or hanging out with Northeastern’s friendly dog, Cooper, is a coveted goal on the bucket list of most students.
Northeastern students have access to several social media accounts for various clubs or organizations, but it is the non-school-affiliated and student-run accounts where students can really come together as a community.
One such account is an anonymous confession account on Instagram, @nu.anonymous. True to their name, they post anonymous messages sent in by students. The confessions are about relatable student experiences at Northeastern as well as personal anecdotes. The account is a way for students to share their unfiltered thoughts about life as a student with the safety of anonymity.
Another Instagram account, @neuwollastonsaffirmations, makes light of the relatable things students experience with posts of different “affirmations” about life or happenings at Northeastern. Some posts include affirmations that their floormates will clean their hair out of communal showers, or that they will clean the communal dryer machine lint traps. What makes their account especially relatable is that most of their posts are specific to Northeastern students. When soy sauce was missing from the dining halls for a couple days, the account made a post affirming that “the nationwide soy sauce shortage will end today”.
The student-run accounts don’t end on Instagram. One account hopped on the TikTok trend of filming students at university and creating made up scenarios about them. The TikTok account called @peopleofnortheastern posts short videos of students with captions joking about students filing noise complaints in the Snell library or recovering from “frat flu.” The text about the students are entirely made up including false names and ages, aimed again to post relatable content for students to enjoy.
On multiple different platforms, Northeastern students can discuss relatable issues and experiences in an unfiltered way through unaffiliated accounts. While these accounts aren’t too serious, they are nevertheless a great way for students to come together as a community.