The Four Most Common Penn State Instagram Posts

While we somehow survived the Mayan Apocalypse of 2012, social media is swallowing society whole and turning us into robotic creatures who need to see the blinding light of a iPhone screen in order to digest their food properly.

Instagram has in recent years become a part of the world-ending social media team, and with Penn State having so many photographable landmarks and festivities, it’s no surprise to find some repeat photos all over your feed. While we’re all guilty of these, here are four of the most over-posted Instagram photos just for this holiday season.

1. Old Main-stagram

We get it, Old Main is pretty much the postcard for everything Penn State. It’s breathtakingly beautiful, especially from the Bell Tower if you’re lucky enough to go on a tour, and is in the center of campus where we rush to get to class everyday. However, in the midst of the zombie apocalypse inspired frenzy that occurs daily on Pollock Road, you’ll find both guys and gals alike glued to their smartphones, taking pictures of the monument and tagging it with various forms of #psu or #lovemyschool or #pennstateproud. While we all rock our blue and white, seeing the same picture with every angle and filter imaginable of the site we pass everyday can get a bit stale.

2. Starbucks-stagram 

If you’re a Penn State student, as we previously described, you’ll spend several hours of your life standing in the HUB Starbucks line. From your favorite skinny latte to now trending Christmas flavors, it is apparent and almost embarrassingly stereotypical that girls have to position their recently purchased coffees in the proper light to take the perfect Instagram photo. Especially with the holidays around the corner, expect your Instagram feed to be filled with snowman cookies and red Starbucks cups positioned in such a way to make every girl feel like a Christmas cheery hipster because they’re so #delicious.

3. Christmas Lights-stagram

Sometimes in the midst of the hustle-and-bustle workweek with classes and part-time jobs and THON organizations, you can tend to forget how beautiful the Penn State campus and surrounding State College area can be, especially during the winter holiday months. Blanketed in snow and an array of illuminating Christmas lights lining Beaver Avenue and especially South Allen Street, it is inevitable that you will see people stopped in their tracks on the sidewalk, turning into evolved photographers. While occasionally you’ll see the lady with a baby snapping a picture, most of the time you’ll see bundled-up college students, taking the same picture 800 times to ensure its quality before posting it proudly to Instagram like #tistheseason.

4. Let’s Go State-stagram

Although Football season is over, Thursday’s #tbt might still enhance the best of these amazing, Penn State rite-of-passage clichè photos. From hugging your friends decked out in your matching white hoodies in the middle of the second quarter, to being lifted up in the air by strangers in the midst of a touchdown at Beaver Stadium, Let’s Go State and Penn State football pride is explicit with every photo you’ll see swallowing your Instagram feed. There’s just something special about having pictures of you and your friends being all sportive and decked out in blue and white, even though 50,000 other people will have almost the same exact photo like #pennstateforever.

Photo by Sam Florio