On a college campus, there are certain things you're just bound to see. In college parties or bars, however, some of those things are better left to the unknown as drinks pour, judgments falter and mistakes are made.
Barstool affiliate account @msuchicks is notorious for giving students a platform to draw attention to the often hilarious things that occur on a typical night out on Michigan State University's campus.
With over 23,000 followers, the account not only includes videos students send in, but also series that offer advice on what bars or frats to frequent, what’s trendy and what’s not and “hot takes” on a variety of topics, from fashion to East Lansing culture.
But perhaps the most popular series from this account happens at the start of every student's week: "Makeout Monday."
Last fall, a few videos were posted of bar-goers having more than just a few smooches on the dance floor; it eventually developed into a weekly series on the account.
The first video, posted with the caption, “Makeout Monday,” amassed over 1,000 likes. From here, the series was born.
Every week, people sent in videos of makeouts they captured at a bar, to some people’s chagrin and to others' pleasure. Comments under the MSU Chicks' Instagram page reflected this love-hate relationship:
“I can't wait for this to ruin relationships,” one comment said.
“You can't just make out with someone at a bar these days without someone filming it, sad,” another one read.
Each Monday, students scrambled onto their phones to check and make sure their weekend mistakes didn’t end up on Instagram for everyone to see, their significant other wasn’t seen with someone else or the video they sent in made the cut.
Although a hit among students, MSU Chicks took to Instagram on March 28 of 2023 to announce that the popular series would be coming to an end on Instagram due to the videos violating the platform’s guidelines. However, since Aug. 28, the series has continued on MSU Chicks' X account.
Journalism senior Caesar Roundtree said he loves the series, but always feared he would wind up on it himself.
“I think everybody liked it because it was so funny and embarrassing and also you never knew if you were going to wind up on it yourself, so it's kind of the anticipation of ‘oh my god, what if I’m on there,” Roundtree said. “You look forward to it. You may see someone you know. It’s honestly such a hype thing.”
Roundtree said he has found that people have a fascination for cringeworthy and embarrassing content, which leads to students pulling out their phones and giving the series traction.
Journalism senior Emily Eiges said she always found the series to be funny, but it definitely deterred her from participating in any kind of action at the bar that might be "filmworthy."
“It is almost, not an invasion of privacy because you’re in public, but bordering on that, because just because you do it at a college bar doesn’t mean you want the internet to see it,” Eiges said.
Business sophomore Nick Peterson said he feels the same way. At first, Peterson said, he didn’t mind the presence of the series, but once he was featured on it himself, he began to feel that it was an invasion of privacy.
Peterson said he was unaware that he had been filmed in the first place and that his friends reached out to him asking him if he knew he had been featured. He decided not to ask for the video to be taken down and instead just let it be.
“It wasn’t super fun, but I didn’t care that much. It wasn’t a huge deal,” Peterson said. “Objectively (the series) is a little funny, but I think the people that dislike it are either people who were featured or people who understand the issues with filming that."
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