From a light-hearted picture with friends to cheating caught on camera, the FHC barstool Instagram account captures it all and puts it on display for students to view, watch, and laugh at. Barstool Instagram accounts are “anonymous,” student-run pages that emerged as a trend in early 2020. At first, it was a “Barstool Sports” trend, but then, it formed into the well-known “Almost Friday” trend, posting memes and other student-submitted photos of student life and athletic events. While some believe the barstool account is helpful for school spirit and connecting our students, I believe this account takes it too far. By posting drunk students and people slapping each other, the account has been prone to crossing the line and causing many problems for the students and the school, such as getting in trouble with principals.
Dating back years, the FHC 300 Army barstool Instagram account has posted about sports, the barstool account posts mainly about the main sport that is going on that season, like football during the fall or basketball during its winter season. On the account, you can find things like the time and location of a sports game, such as the recent quarterfinals in the basketball state championship, which was held at Union High School at 4 p.m., and the dress code in the student section, which was neon. This can be very helpful for students who can’t find this information in other places, but who still would like to attend games. While it is helpful for FHC, as it spreads exceptional information and awareness about school events, the students also post an “Almost Friday” weekly. Almost Friday is a type of post published every Thursday, symbolizing that it is almost the end of the school week. To celebrate this, the student section posts funny pictures of well-known students, such as peanut butter from top to bottom on someone’s face. Some pictures they post for Almost Friday do not do anything to harm the school or the students. These posts consist of funny pictures of students, group pictures of the 300 army student section, or inside jokes some of the student section have together.
On the other hand, most can agree that some of these posts are crossing the line. From drunk students on a couch to people cheating on each other, these photos can be enough to stir up trouble and cause drama.
Whether one wants to go to college or go straight into a career path, digital footprints can come back to you. It is likely that when trying to get a job, hiring managers and recruiters will check your online background, which is online for anyone to see. What is posted on the barstool and some of the illegal things that are posted, such as underage drinking, can seriously affect and comeback to effect the future of these students. employers will see the past of these students, and they will see the things they have done that are disagreeable and could affect whether they hire them or not. Though some believe that these issues are very bad, some can still keep an open mind about the account. Sophomore Luke Bounds has been following the Barstool account for two years. Bounds keeps an open mind about the posts when he sees them once a week.
“There is a good line that you should definitely not cross on social media, and I feel like their account does a good job at staying behind this line,” Bounds said. “Overall, the account has a good impact on the school. It can have negative impacts, but since we are connecting with each other and coming together in a fun way, I think it is doing more good than harm.”
Even if one believes that this statement is true or not, this Instagram account has been prone to causing things to happen that has not been good for this school or the students who go here. Though the account claims not to be affiliated with any school or district, students have gotten in serious trouble for posting inappropriate content on this account. Although this page can be fun and a good way of bringing more students together, if they push what they are doing further and post even worse things, then major consequences may start to arise. When they post about upcoming sports events and what to wear, this is a great way to boost school spirit and the hype for an upcoming sports game. I think to keep up posting on this account and also not ruin futures for people, the right thing to do would be to only post things that seem appropriate online and make sure if they are posting a picture of someone in this school, they are getting their permission and consent to do so. If they can do these things, I think this account could stay as a great source of information and a good representation of the school without harming students or the look of our school as a whole.
