During a club tennis practice last week, I overheard a girl excitedly say, “I was on Barstool for my tattoo.” She continued to pull her bottom lip down to expose the word “Saban.” The original post is of two girls with their bottom lips exposed to show the matching tattoos that read Daddy Saban. Despite having over 2,700 likes along with a comment from Nick Saban’s daughter, the students involved received no credit. Unless you scrolled through the comment section and found their usernames, you would never know who it was. She was countered, however, when another student boasted that they had been on the account three times. The other student explained the posts in a prideful way, almost as a challenge to her. As far as I know, neither of them had gained a massive following from this. This begs the question: Why do students strive to be on these accounts?

Could it be for the irony, the hysterics you and your friends get from watching yourself do something stupid and then watching others get the same enjoyment out of it?

It could be for what some might think of as professional reasons, believing a post on a popular social media page would give them qualification – as if putting a section that reads “Featured on Barstool Alabama, September 9, 2019,” on a resume would make employers have a higher respect for you. If it’s not for professional gain, it’s most likely for personal.  

It could be to gloat, to tell friends, classmates and complete strangers that you were featured on an account with over 60,000 followers, which automatically makes you higher up on the social food chain. The secret “clout” of being on an account that most of campus follows must be enough of a reason for students to continue doing it. 

Maybe just knowing that you are featured makes you feel better about your actions. This is probably the least likely category considering most won’t or don’t remember their actions. By the way, it won’t make you feel better if employers start looking at social media to determine whether they will hire you. 

In the worst-case scenario, it could be that the student partaking in the action is unaware they are being photographed. With Alabama being a one-party consent state, meaning only one party, either the photographer or the one being photographed, must give consent, it allows anyone partaking in an activity to be unknowingly photographed or recorded. The only way to find out is by scrolling through social media and finding it on an account with more followers than students on campus. Is it embarrassing? Most likely, but it is legal.  

Multiple reasonings could drive a student’s desire to be anonymously featured, but the idea of potentially receiving a mass amount of attention must be enough for students to participate in both legal and illegal activities. The world is always looking for bigger, more embarrassing content to go viral. Barstool and Old Row are just easier, closer-to-home alternatives.