Let’s dive back all the way to the start of Twitter, or “X”, whichever you’d want to call it. X originated in San Francisco, all the way in 2006 (yet again, another social media platform that is older than my existence). Back then, the official name for X was Twttr (spelled as T-W-T-T-R). Twitter was made by Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Noah Glass, and Biz Stone. 

Twitter only started taking off a year later, where average tweets per day boosted from 20,000 tweets per day to 60,000 tweets per day. X has then developed to have over 500 million Tweets per day. From then to now, somewhere along the lines, the first “stan account” was born. The term stan is a combination of the words “stalker” and “fan”. I must admit, with the anonymity of Twitter, it’s very easy to open an account and post embarrassing tweets about a celebrity you obsess over, take it from me. *ahem* roger taylor stan account *ahem* 

Nowadays, Stan Twitter does not just confine itself to being fandom exclusive. A lot of LGBTQ+ and AAVE or African American Vernacular English lingo is taken from the culture of Stan Twitter, and vice versa. These communities coexist and overlap. 

Now let’s delve into the fun part, stan Twitter memes! Oftentimes, these funny memes tend to divert our attention from the actual root of the problem, to make us focus on the comedic aspect of it all. Take for example, after a recent event at the VMA’s, pop singer Selena Gomez expressed on her Instagram how she never wants to be a meme ever again! She followed it up by stating “I’d rather sit still than be dragged for being myself.” Preach, Selena! This shows us that being the butt of the joke can hurt, and it usually does hurt. 

So, why is posting memes online so bad? While not all memes are bad, memes that focus on somebody and something out of their control can potentially affect their mental health. Several studies have found that looking at memes and laughing at them increases serotonin, otherwise known as the happy hormone. However, if you are the butt of the joke, then having so many people posting an unflattering picture of your face could threaten your self-confidence, and could raise points for social anxiety. This overall causes mental stress that could lead to self-perception issues that could potentially bring about negative thoughts and mental illness. 

With over 500,000,000 tweets per day, a lot of the content that goes out on Twitter is unhinged, let’s face it. Especially for the smaller-scale, lesser-known stan accounts, flagging of content is not that heavily moderated. So if it does not get reported manually, it is not taken down unless the Twitter Bot deems it as sensitive. With this, a lot of unmanned accounts run by those who fall under the “Stan Account” umbrella tend to be very open with their remarks, even if it not the kindest. 

Even though the memes are laughable at first, we must understand that all of the people posting them are hiding behind an anonymous screen. As I mentioned, the anonymity of Twitter allows people to mask their mean and negative comments behind the facade of an innocent meme. 

With the boom of stan twitter culture, we tend to forget basic morals and values. Let us all work together to make the internet a safe space for everyone. Happy tweeting, and always, stay tweety!