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After careful deliberation and a great deal of distress, Jenny Houston '11 opted not to name her newly uploaded Facebook photo album "Summer at home," and instead broke ground by naming it "If I was a bear I'd be a koala."
"I just thought the title that actually described the album was so blasé," Houston said. "So I figured that it'd be funny to name it something different."
When asked for the reasoning behind the new album title, Houston broke into fits of giggles.
"Okay, so - maybe this won't make sense - but anyway, Sarah totally was looking at my Brown sweatshirt, and then - there was alcohol involved - and so she was like, 'Brown's mascot is the bear, right?' and I was like, 'Yeah!' - and then JD came over and he was totally shwasted - and Jeopardy was on - and then Yoline goes, 'If I was a bear I'd be a koala!' and it was so hilarious that I was just like, "Oh my God, that could totally be an album title!"
The trend has caught on with other Brown students through a semi-incestuous chain of Brown network Facebook stalking. Courtney Blaire '10 was the first student to try song lyrics as an album title, which quickly superseded the inside joke as the most efficient way to be a Facebook snob.
"I just thought 'Maybe you're gonna be the one that saves me' described my weekend in Cancun better than anything else could," Blaire explained. "It was either that or 'Blame it on the a-a-a-a-a-alcohol,' and my creepy physics teacher from high school might have seen that on his feed and told my mom."
An informal Brown Noser survey found that 76% of Brown student Facebook albums get their titles from Paramore, Taylor Swift, Lil Wayne, or Grizzly Bear song lyrics, depending on the user's current mood and level of pretentiousness. Inside joke usage has decreased to an even 20%, and 3% of album titles use symbols and foreign languages.
"I'm still holding out," said Harry Fender '12, who is one of the few students still naming photo albums by describing what they contain. "I figure that this thing will start to fade and the old way of titling will become retro, and then I'll be cool and indie again. Like Grizzly Bear."
"I guess it has gotten a little old," Houston said. "Basically, you could just put up a status or album and then say, 'Insert joke/song lyrics here.'"
Added Houston, "Wait, that is so clever! I am totally doing that!"
