Is @steinstool Past Its Prime?

By Julie Kessel

Football season is back, and with it, @steinstool, an anonymous student-run Instagram account mimicking the style of Barstool Sports for the Einstein community. @steinstool’s purpose is to promote school spirit and sports games at Einstein, especially football and “Friday Night Lights” culture. However, concerns have been raised about their choices and methods this year.

@steinstool’s primary form of posting is through “Almost Friday” posts, where various random pictures, usually fall sports-related, are posted with the text “Almost Friday” placed somewhere in the frame, raising spirit for Einstein’s football games. This year’s “Almost Friday” posts, though, have raised concerns over school representation on the Instagram page.

The “Almost Friday” post before the Northwood game included three separate pictures of principal Mark Brown and four student section pictures from the week before. However, there was no fall sports representation and a distinct lack of variety. Similar issues were present in @steinstool’s two previous posts. “It doesn’t represent the student body, because it's just one friend group,” said an anonymous senior.

Further, although the @steinstool account admin posted an Instagram story requesting picture submissions, the majority were not used. Numerous students, including boys' soccer and cheer members, submitted pictures that were not included in posts. In fact, cheer was directly asked to submit pictures, but when senior cheer captain Chloe Hick sent some in, she was left on read.

Hick also expressed grievances with the lack of representation in the “Almost Friday” posts. “What’s a football game without marching band, without cheer, without poms?” she said. “It can’t just be the student section, and it can’t just be a few specific people…Stein means Einstein.”

Additionally, Hick would like to see more variety with @steinstool’s posts. In previous years, @steinstool admin posted memes of Einstein football’s opponents in addition to the generic “Almost Friday” posts. Other than a few AI-generated Instagram stories, this year, @steinstool’s posting is exclusively “Almost Friday” content, which people are starting to get sick of. @steinstool seems to be relying on PressBox News for all posts about other sports’ schedules and scores.

However, there have been a few benefits to @steinstool’s inactivity. Hick created a cheer, “Almost Friday,” post after @steinstool failed to properly represent them, and other teams, like field hockey and girls’ soccer, soon followed suit. Another improvement made this year is the number of pictures included in @steinstool’s posts. Previous years’ admin included four to five pictures on average, while this year’s posts include a range from seven to ten pictures.