Social media is a tool used to unite the world. Apps like Instagram encourage communication and harbor an online community for users. The school utilizes social media by making accounts for clubs and organizations. However, in the past couple years, students have created unofficial Madison-themed instagram accounts centered around student life.
This trend gained popularity after the return of students from Covid-caused quarantines. The most prominent and fastest growing account was “Nocontextjmhs,” centered around posting out-of-context pictures of students’ on campus. The page exploded in popularity when people started sending their own photos to be shared.
The owner of the account has continued to remain anonymous,but was willing to share what it was like running the biggest Madison-themed Instagram account.
The idea of the account was first conceived on Instagram “I followed an account called No Context NBA, it was just like basketball stuff with no context, and I thought that’d be cool but Madison-style,” the proprietor stated.
The page started off slowly but picked up, and eventually skyrocketed in popularity when students returned to campus after Covid. “For the first couple years it was at 400 followers, and I actually stopped posting in April of 2021, then I came back and it really blew up in September, when people were sending a lot of first day pictures.”
The page caught the attention of half the school, seemingly posting anything with no particular guidelines, but there were unwritten rules the photos had to follow. “We won’t post you if you can’t tell if it’s at the school, or if you try to get on Nocontext. If it’s obviously staged we’re not gonna post it. Whatever you send just has to be interesting or funny. Multiple people run this account now and one of them posted a picture of me in the choir room…, and it just didn’t hit, so I told them to take it down.”
The owner was aware of the reach the account had. During weather warnings, holidays and advertisements for student projects, the owner tried their best to not only be a source of comedy but information as well: “We try to stay on top of it. This is our school, we take pride in it. I feel like the account affects the students’ perception of the school. People who say ‘Madison sucks’ point at us, but people from other schools that I know are jealous of everything going on at the school.”
Unfortunately the owners couldn’t run the account forever. Graduating in 2023, the original owners passed the torch on to another anonymous student to continue the trend for the next school year. After the 2023-24 year, the account lays dormant with over four thousand followers.
“After high school I’m not gonna care about the account. Whoever has it next, it’s up to them to keep it up. I kinda hope it stays up. Even if it doesn’t, it’ll just be a cool thing that’s stuck in the past. It’s like we have our own yearbook catered towards us,” the owner said.
