With social media being a prominent part of high schooler’s lives, “Almost” Instagram accounts have become a popular tradition throughout many schools.
There are several types of accounts, “Almost Friday,” “Almost Meet Day” and “Almost Game Day” are some of the most popular and are seen as a fun way for students to share a laugh.
“We start by sending a text to the group chat and having everyone send or DM photos from that week or recently,” the Almost Game Day account owner said.
Students typically send in funny pictures of them and their friends to be posted on the account.
“I get sent in like 100 pictures and I just go though all of them and see which ones are the funniest. I try to pick something I think everybody will laugh at, not just my sense of humor, but if it’s not funny and it’s lame I’m not posting it,” the Almost Friday account owner said.
Account runners get to choose from a variety of picture options and they select what they think are the funniest and people will enjoy the most.
“It’s a wide variety of people who send in pictures. People I didn’t even know went to North Central, freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors, everybody sends something in,” the Almost Friday account owner said.
With these accounts being so popular, the ones that showcase the whole school get lots of involvement. Unlike the game day and meet day accounts who only have pictures of their teammates, almost Friday is a schoolwide account.
“On Snapchat you can add the text. So we will add the ‘Almost Meet Day’ text and then put them together and make posts,” said the Almost Meet day account owner.
Including the “almost” text is something all accounts add for the branding of the account.
“I really liked writing captions and I liked being creative with the names of the team we were playing against,” the Almost Game Day account owner said.
With running the account comes creativity. Being able to choose what song is used and making an enjoyable caption add to the fun effect of the account.
“We try to post before every game,” the Almost Game Day account owner said.
Posting schedules vary based on the account. The accounts that are run for sports teams typically post the day before a game, and the school wide account posts more often.
“I post every other Thursday but I’ve been lacking recently,” the Almost Friday account owner said.
With each post, it’s important to keep the school’s image in mind.
“I do stuff to avoid getting in trouble. There’s a bunch of pictures that have alcohol or drugs in them and all blur those out or put something above those so we protect people’s image,” said the Almost Friday account owner.
In order to keep the account running, precautions are taken to help not get the school involved.
“Of course there have been complaints. The last account got banned. There’s always someone who’s going to be mad, but you shouldn’t be mad at the person who posted it. You should be mad at your friends for sending it in,” the Almost Friday account owner said.
The accounts involve posing silly pictures and videos of students, so not everyone is happy if they get posted, but understanding how people feel is something the account owners take into accountability.
“I think overall it helps strengthen school culture because it provides information about the team, who’s on the team and allows insight into a little bit of what is going on in the program,” Almost Game Day owner said.
Having the accounts for sports teams not only shares funny memories, but it also helps connect the school with athletics.
“I think the account stirs things up and gives NC something to talk about,” Almost Friday account owner said.
Unlike the sports accounts that give information on games, the Almost Friday account gives the whole school something to talk about and is a way for students to connect and share funny experiences.
“I will pass it down to probably my favorite junior, whoever that will be at the end of the year, or whoever I think wants it most or will keep the tradition good,” the Almost Friday account owner said.
The accounts are typically run by seniors and at the end of the year get passed down to the following class members. This helps keep the tradition of the accounts.
This week consider taking a look at the “Almost” accounts to see if you get a kick out of it. You might just get to see a side of the school that you’ve never seen before.
