West Long Branch, NJ (The Verge)- Carolyn Marrone hops on a treadmill at Boylan gym to burn off calories leftover from the holidays. Immediately she notices something strange. “The girl next to me on the treadmill was walking super slow and looked like she was going to prom. Her hair and make up were ridiculous.” So what does Carolyn do, mind her own business? Suggest more comfortable gym clothing? Or wait until the make up starts to run down this girls face? The correct answer is none of the above. She tweets the following to @MnmthUProblems: lol at girls wearing makeup to the gym. I guess its bc walking on the treadmill 2mph doesnt exactly make u sweat #getreal.
With over 800 followers, this social media sensation is sweeping the campus. Every day students are tweeting @MnmthUProblems between 20 and 40 times. @Brittanyirvine complains: when your professor makes dumb puns,”when television came into the picture”. While @mikezimmerman1 rants: It’s almost impossible to get any work done using the Monmouth internet @MnmthUProblems.
The Twitter itself is authored by a person who would like to remain anonymous because it adds a Gossip Girl mystique to the account, “It kind of started as a joke between a few friends. As we gained more and more followers, I realized how much the students of MU needed and wanted somewhere to voice their opinions. Students don’t want to submit surveys or forms. This is the best and most efficient way for anyone to
vent about a problems or tell a funny story.”
A group of friends first created @MnmthUProblems in the fall of 2011 and collaborated on what to tweet and retweet, “After a few minutes, people were already tweeting in with their thoughts. It literally took a total of fifteen minutes for people to start noticing that something was happening.”
As more students leaped onto the Monmouth Problems bandwagon a majority of the original authors began to back out, “In the beginning there were a few people running it, but now it’s just me.”
As the Twitter has garnered some critique from administrators, this lone Gossip Girl wants to remind school officials that this is not an outlet dedicated to the slamming of Monmouth University, “I think some people don’t realize that this is really just for fun. All I want is for someone out there to read a tweet and think it’s funny. This is not a Twitter page bashing Monmouth. NOTHING. I repeat: NOTHING on this page
should be taken seriously.”
Students speculate that someone with enough brazen to start a Twitter account regarding the problems at Monmouth must have some serious issues of their own, but this isn’t the case, “Monmouth is awesome. There isn’t anything that I can find wrong with this school. Maybe once in a while the Internet connection isn’t the best, and the occasional parking lot crisis, but it’s nothing a good tweet can’t cure.”
This user has started a trend for anonymous Twitter accounts revolving around the Monmouth community. This semester several of them have sprung up, such as @monmouthulove, which is another account run in secret, that now has over 300 followers. Their mission statement is, “Unofficially in love with Monmouth University. Seeing the big picture through the bad.”
Senior Jackie Young states, “Students can now tweet to @monmouthulove with examples of why they love Monmouth and @MnmthUProblems with examples of why they hate Monmouth. We all really do have a love-hate relationship with our school.”
Although the author of @MnmthUProblems encourages people to see the big picture, “It definitely helps me realize the importance of social media to our generation and how much we rely on it as a whole. Twitter is the new Facebook, Facebook was the new MySpace, it’s all one big cycle, and I’m excited to see where it goes next.”
Although running the account may appear to be time consuming, the secret tweeter says it serves as a past time, retweeting things when bored or in between classes. “I want the page to run for as long as people want it to! Keep on tweeting and so will I. When it’s time for me to graduate I’ll have to pass on the torch.”
So what are the hopes for the future of @MnmthUProblems? “I hope students will keep tweeting in their stories and ideas. It’s funny how such a small idea has transformed into a successful and controversial Twitter account.”
While many people are craving to know the identity of the user, they have chosen to remain anonymous for this interview but suggested that their anonymity won’t remain forever, “maybe one day my identity will be revealed.”
Until then.
Xoxo
-The Verge
