Once again, Filipinos’ knack for turning a seemingly ordinary topic into a wild meme sparked the “Harvard” trend on Aug. 25. It’s crazy how the prestigious foreign university has reached our shores and has touched our uncanny humor unprecedentedly.

The trend may have probably started when Harvard University began posting photos of their facilities during the lockdown period. Baring blank, traffic-less walkways and buildings, Filipinos got the idea of relating themselves with the university as if they are actually students from there. The unpredictability of this wildly imaginative idea began to spread viral on social media from Facebook to Twitter and thus began yet another show of Filipinos’ weird humor. 

Since it clicked, here’s some of the best entries we saw from the trend:

https://www.facebook.com/zarahvalerie.canoza/posts/708531976671452

https://www.facebook.com/jcesibayan/posts/3395081543848560

https://www.facebook.com/mykeljeyk/posts/3524123430934248

https://www.facebook.com/ampolista/posts/3686468908034589

https://www.facebook.com/cheesetur/posts/1310728615965128

While these are all just for fun, it tells a lot about the college culture in the Philippines. A nostalgic experience for young Filipinos to reminisce about the good, old pre-pandemic days. Sharing stories of sharing canteen staples, cliche dating experiences, our love and respect for guards and janitors, and even the common urban stories that roam around distinct institutions. It’s yet another breeze of fresh memes to give us a break from the saturated internet’s barrage of sad news.

And as Filipinos continued their streak and show of power in social media, Harvard’s engagement spiked with tons of spams and the world began to question the randomness of this activity. Below is one of the initial posts that was targeted by Filipinos that, as of writing, has reached 5.1K comments and 76K shares. 

https://www.facebook.com/Harvard/photos/a.158722856606/10157040632341607

Interestingly, Filipinos skipped Harvard’s more serious posts that tackles research, studies and historical posts which only shows the consideration of responsibility in social media. Instead, Filipinos focused more on poking fun at the empty campus narrative proving the harmlessness it intends of the trend. 

Either it’s boredom or peer pressures of the internet, the activity has become an exciting trend these days to share unique experiences of the college life. It also just means that the new normal has already affected many people to look back into the leisure of life then.