Written by

Rebecca Haddad

Arts + CultureTechnology

UWindsor Students Create Windsor-Specific Meme Accounts to Cheer Up Community in Covid Times

Published On: Wed, Apr 20th, 2022, 1:38PMLast Updated: Wed, Apr 20th, 2022, 1:38PM6 min read
By Published On: Wed, Apr 20th, 2022, 1:38PMLast Updated: Wed, Apr 20th, 2022, 1:38PM6 min read

What do you get when you put together a pandemic, the ensuing social isolation and boredom, and Internet-savvy college students? Memes, of course. Assuming you don’t live under a rock, you have surely noticed that a variety of meme accounts lightly poking fun at the University of Windsor and the city of Windsor have recently cropped up on social media. These accounts have garnered the attention of thousands of students and Windsorites alike and have provided an outlet for lighthearted fun in these desolate times. The Lance reached out to the creators behind these accounts to learn why they decided to become part-time meme-lords. Read more below.

Clocks of UWindsor

The Instagram account by the username of @clocksofuwindsor is exactly what it sounds like: it’s a photo journal of UWindsor’s clocks…most of which happen to display the incorrect time.  “Hunting down all the wonderful yet incorrect clocks at the University of Windsor” is the official goal of the account, as it says in the bio. Scroll through the feed of @clocksofuwindsor for a sampling of inaccurate clocks in every building, from Chrysler Hall South to Leddy Library. Submit your own incorrect clock via DM if you’d like as well.

Why would one document incorrect campus clocks, you might ask? “It’s just a bit of fun really,” said the supreme watchmaker behind the account. “I thought it was strange that despite all the construction on campus during the pandemic, nobody had fixed the clocks. Once I started noticing them, I couldn’t help looking for more. So I thought I’d start capturing them all, kind of like Pokemon.”

Clocks of UWindsor has attracted the attention of almost 90 followers, which the creator did not expect. “Maybe it’s a way to escape the stressful time we’re living in,” they speculated. “What’s more humdrum than a broken clock? It’s a nice distraction from my day too.”

One weekend, the account’s creator received a cryptic message from an anonymous account telling them to expect “new content” on Monday. They arrived on campus to discover that someone had taped up poems on the theme of time to the clocks in Chrysler Hall North and South. A case in point: Walt Whitman’s To Think of Time. The Lance investigated the matter and discovered that the serial poet was none other than Windsor youth poet laureate Alexei Ungurenasu. Well played, sir. Well played.

Affirmations Windsor

The popular Instagram account known as @affirmationswindsor was created on March 24 and has already garnered over 1,700 followers. The account uses affirmations in a tongue-in-cheek way to humorously cope with the mundane problems of living in Windsor, Ontario and attending the University of Windsor. In the world of self-help and mindfulness, an affirmation is a way to will something into existence through the power of words. “Today will be a good day” is an example. Reciting such a statement will apparently ensure that you have a good day. For Affirmations Windsor, it might go something more like: “the university Starbucks line will be short and I will not be late for class” or “I will not be afraid to walk by the high schoolers who hang out behind dougall shoppers”.

What was the spark that lit Affirmations Windsor into existence? The backstory begins at a local Shoppers Drug Mart. The creator behind the account told The Lance: “A few weeks ago, when I was walking into Shoppers, I had to walk by the group of teenagers who are always hanging out at the back of the parking lot. In my head, I was kind of like ‘you are not going to be afraid to walk by them’. Earlier that day, someone I follow had reposted a meme from the Instagram account Toronto Affirmations, and I thought it would be funny to make a meme in that style about that experience.”

“Initially, I had no intention of making a whole account for them. I was just going to tweet it. But while I was sitting in the C.A.W procrastinating my work while making the first one, I kept thinking about other Windsor-specific things that would be funny in that format, so I kept making them. I was sending them to my friends and they thought they were funny too, so I decided to make an account to post them. I honestly didn’t think anyone was going to follow the account, I was mostly just making them because they were making me laugh so much, but I’m glad so many others are enjoying them too.”

1,700 people and counting are enjoying them, to be exact. Why has this account struck such a cord with the Windsor community? “I think it’s because it creates a sense of community,” guessed the account’s creator. “People like to feel like they belong and are part of a group, and for the most part, all of my posts are things that anyone who has lived in Windsor for long enough or is a student at the University can probably relate to in some way or another.”

UWindsor Sink Reviews

The TikTok account @uwindsorsinkreviews posts videos providing “*honest* reviews of sinks at uwindsor”, according to the account’s bio. What does that even mean? Well, the sink reviewer behind the account essentially visits bathrooms in different UWindsor buildings to sarcastically review the quality of the sinks, from design to water flow. Like any good reviewer, the sink reviewer always provides a rating out of ten for each sink they try out.

The sink in the bathroom on the second floor of Essex Hall, for example, received a sad rating of four out of ten because “it screams at you”. The sinkfluencer was even less impressed with the sink in the bathroom on the second floor of the Engineering building. They complained that “even though it’s in the engineering building, it’s very poorly designed”.

UWindsor Sink Reviews currently has over 350 followers and over 3,000 likes. Their most popular video, featuring the sink from the retro pink bathroom on the third floor of Leddy Library, has been viewed 31.5K times. According to the sinkfluencer, this is the video “that brought most of my followers to my page”.

The sinkfluencer told The Lance that they originally made the TikTok account to put a smile on students’ faces. “I know school can be really stressful,” they said, “so I wanted to create something humorous to help myself and others through the school year.”

The sinktrepeneur also hopes to expand their initiative in the future. “I have a very uneven female-to-male following ratio, with a lot more female-identifying followers,” they explained. “I assume this is because [as a woman] I can only review the sinks in the women’s washrooms. So in the future, I may look for someone who would be interested in reviewing the sinks in the men’s washrooms as well. That way, everyone can know where the good sinks on campus are.” A true sink Samaritan, indeed.

The sinkfluencer told us they would be having a giveaway once they reach 500 followers. We’re hoping the prize is a golden faucet. 

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About Rebecca Haddad

Rebecca Haddad is an undergraduate student at the University of Windsor pursuing a double-major in French Studies and Political Science along with a minor in English Language and Literature. She is not quite sure what her future holds, but she hopes that her career will allow her to explore her varied interests in languages, art, politics, social justice, journalism, and social media.