What do the semester switch, campus construction, dining hall food, bicycle accidents and early morning classes have in common? They’re all considered #OSUProblems.
Ohio State students are connecting with each other via Twitter by posting grievances they experience around campus accompanied by the hashtag #OSUProblems.
There are almost no limits to what students tweet and deem as an OSU problem, with topics ranging from the switch to semesters to crowded Campus Area Bus Service buses.
The Twitter account “@TheOSUProblems” is one of the most active voices in the social phenomenon. The account, created last winter, has more than 6,100 followers to date. OSUProblems tweets annoyances that OSU students complain about, and also retweets students that tweet their problems as well.
The account holder is an anonymous user, its identity unknown to Twitter followers. However, the individual behind OSUProblems revealed his identity to The Lantern as Nick Peterson, a second-year student in mechanical engineering.
“The purpose is kinda just to highlight struggles that OSU students go through on a daily basis and just poking fun at them a little bit,” he said.
“I feel like if people knew who it was, it would just take the fun out of the account,” said Peterson.
With the growth in followers over the past few months, the account holder has been trying to find ways to get more people involved.
The OSUProblems Twitter account started a new trend called “#TiredTuesdays,” in early September, when followers were asked to tweet pictures of students sleeping in unusual places on campus. The OSUProblems account holder said the idea came to him after seeing a student sleeping on a table on the way to one of his classes, and said the response was overwhelming.
“I didn’t go into that day thinking that I was just gonna take random pictures of people sleeping,” said the account holder. “But that’s probably caught on more than anything that I’ve done on there.”
Jacob Moser, a Twitter user and a second-year in agriculture communication, said he follows the Twitter account because the tweets are relatable.
“They take normal things like sleeping in class, or the recent chaos in the South Campus dorms, and make jokes about them,” Moser said. “It’s a fun place for Ohio State students to share amusing things they see or experience on campus.”
Peterson said he never expected his Twitter account to get so popular, and plans to keep the Twitter account until he graduates. He said that after graduation, he might entrust the account to an underclassman who he thinks it will be in good hands with.
“I had no idea it would be this big. I thought it might die off after a little bit, I never thought a year later I would still be doing it,” Peterson said. “But I haven’t really thought that far ahead because I still have this year and probably two more years on top of it.”