LIFE—Student spreads the Auburn experience through Instagram account

Illustration by Juliane Vo

The student–ran Instagram account, @auburn affirmation shares positive posts about the Auburn experience that many students relate to. 

Editor's note: The owner of the Instagram account @auburn.affirmations wishes to remain anonymous to protect the integrity and focus of the page. With respects to that wish, the owner will be referred to as "Riley"  and use the gender neutral they, them and their pronouns when necessary.  

AUBURN, Ala.– The dorms of Auburn University are home to many busy students. They're toiling away at homework, projects and papers. Many work in the isolation of their dorms because of the pandemic. 

Riley, one of these students, pulls their laptop close. Riley is ready to hunker down and get work done singlehandedly. Riley opens up Photoshop and a folder of Auburn themed images. 

Riley begins crafting a batch of images with overlaid text they hope people will find funny or relatable. The subjects of the images feature all parts of campus life, from the wins of the men's basketball team to the dreaded parking tickets many students receive. 

After Riley finishes making the images in Photoshop, they send the pictures to their phone. Riley adds a few more stickers and details in the app, Picsart. Now they’re ready to post to their Instagram  account. 

Riley's Instagram account, @auburn affirmation, attracts over 7,000 followers, many of whom are Auburn students. The posts feature memes, humorous images or videos that are typically shared between users. The memes center around making parts of the Auburn experience wholly positive and affirming. 

Recently Riley posted about the success of the Auburn Men's Basketball Team and their head coach, Bruce Pearl. The posts are comedic worships of both team members and the coach. One recent post simply captions a headshot of Pearl with his name in bold letters and sparkles highlighting his face

A post after the Auburn vs. Alabama game spoofed a scene from the hit show "Euphoria", showing off the fear other teams have when facing Auburn. Riley enjoys pulling in pop culture references into their posts when possible.  "It's appealing to anybody," Riley said, "if a guy likes Euphoria and sports or just Euphoria, that's a very niche thing for them." To Riley things that may be so niche can end up being so relatable to many students. 

While Riley is not an avid–sports person, they believe their account should be an "everything account" in the same way Auburn University has been called an everything school by students. "The sports part isn't that cool to me but everyone getting so excited for it which makes me happy," Riley said. "I think I'm getting more and more used to it."

Affirmation accounts like Riley's began with the Instagram account, @affirmations. In October 2020, Mats Andersen, a Norwegian artist, began posting memes made of bold, positive messages, collections of stock images and hazy gradients or blurs. Riley said, "I think it's hilarious. I love it. I think it's silly."  Like the affirmation accounts before them, @auburn.affirmations promotes mental wellness, positivity and relatability set on a funny background. 

Today, many of the @auburn.affimations posts get over 2,000 likes. However, Riley originally only shared their memes with a few friends. Riley's friends would soon be the ones to encourage them to start an affirmations account for Auburn University. 

One of Riley's close friend runs an affirmation account for their school, Mercer. Riley’s brother also showed them the affirmation account for his school, UGA. "I saw they were getting a lot of followers and it was a cool thing," Riley said. 

In July 2021, Riley would begin @auburn.affirmations. They hoped that their account would be "a good representation of Auburn". The sharing of the Auburn experience is central to @auburn.affirmations.

Riley said, "My purpose is I want people who want to get into Auburn or are interested in Auburn to look at the page and be like 'Oh this is what student life might be like and this is what's involved with being at Auburn.'" 

Riley was one of the many students who began their time at Auburn while the pandemic was raging. The pandemic gave them a lot of content to turn into affirmations. Their goal is to help Auburn students look at the things that they all have experienced during the pandemic as something that can unite the student body in positivity. 

"I just want to be a page people can relate to and make them happier because it's hard enough to go through college, but with a pandemic it adds a whole new level," Riley said. ”It’s inspired me to make a page where I take input and my own posts to connect with students." 

Riley made a post affirming people they will not get acne because of their masks and will receive negative COVID-19 test results. These two images garnered over 1,800 likes. It seems many students are wishing these statements to come true. 

Maggie Miller, a junior in graphic design and friend of Riley, said @auburn.affirmation helped many students who first entered Auburn University during the pandemic. ”I think it connected a lot of freshman together with @auburn.affirmations," Miller said. ”A lot of us didn't even leave our rooms because it was all online. Having that sense of connectivity was nice and much needed."

One of the many key aspects of the @auburn.affirmation page is the anonymity of the owner. "I just didn't think it was important for it to be known who runs the page," Riley said, "It's not about who runs it; it's about what's on the page." 

Many Auburn students respect Riley's choice to remain anonymous. Autumn Mille, a sophomore studying chemical engineering and Spanish, "wholeheartedly respects their privacy." Mille said, "The person wants to remain anonymous, and that's their choice, and I respect that." 

Miller compares Riley's anonymity to a secret identity "like Spider–Man." Miller said, "It adds more to the mystery of it." 

Between school and extracurricular activities, Riley sometimes struggles to keep up with making memes and posting to their page. Riley has over time created a system to help them balance the many obligations of a college student "I make a lot of affirmations at once because I have little spurts of creativeness, and it'll last like two hours," Riley said. Each image takes them about 20 minutes to complete. 

 They make sure to keep a "bank of affirmations" that can be posted anytime for situations where they're too busy to make something specific for that week. Riley also saves up a reservoir of situation specific affirmations and lays in wait for the perfect opportunity to use them. Mille said, "You can tell they put a lot of effort in it, and they work really fast."

 The fruits of Riley's labor generates positivity in students downtrodden by the pandemic.  Mille said, "@auburn.affirmations provides the link we need to talk to people or feel more connected to them." 

To Mille a key part of the Auburn experience is the connections students make. "I wholeheartedly believe if you don't really connect with anyone, you don’t really live the true Auburn experience," said Mille. 

"Everyone is going through something," Riley said, "and I hope my page can help them find that one weird meme of affirmation that makes them laugh or relate to."

Correction (5/24/2022): In the original version of the story it was stated that Riley’s brother ran the affirmation Instagram account for UGA. This is incorrect. Riley’s brother attends UGA and showed Riley the UGA affirmations account. The person who runs said account is a separate individual. The story has been since updated to reflect that correction. The author is deeply sorry for any confusion the error may have caused.