CTLJ briefly chatted with Alex, a third-year law student who helps moderate the group, about what it’s like to maintain a social media community of law student, and what makes a good meme.
CTLJ: How did you become an admin for this page? What did that entail?
A: Like any young child, it was always my dream to be an admin of a highly popular meme group. Some other law students from Berkeley Law started the group and I just did what everyone should do to get ahead in life: shit-post constantly.
CTLJ: What’s the most interesting part of being in charge of this type of community? Do you think memes can help foster a sense of community?
A: There are a handful of us who moderate the group. The most interesting part is probably just dealing with the weird interactions in private messages and in real life. For me personally, I’ve gotten the full gamut of vague death threats, fan mail, and sexual propositions. All of the moderators have, at one point or another, dealt with strange (sometimes good, sometimes bad) interactions with people on and offline. It’s a weird vibe. I think the community is really great and generally everyone likes to have fun and has a good sense of humor. Considering how many people participate actively on the page (in the last thirty days we’ve had nearly a million posts, comments, and reactions and we have about 70,000 active and regular users) it’s pretty amazing the environment isn’t way more toxic. In terms of fostering community, I think it’s less about the memes and more about it being a place to share the common experience of being miserable in law school and even miserable as a practicing attorney.