Title: Corporate Culture Meme
General Information about Item:
- Material and Verbal: Joke
- English
- USA
Informant Data:
- Jeffrey Qiao is a student in the class of 2020 at Dartmouth College. He is originally from Irvine, California but attended boarding school in the North East during his high school years. Jeffrey is a math major, and he began making memes during his freshman year in college.
Contextual Data:
- Social Context:
- This meme was collected during a one on one interview in Baker Berry Library at Dartmouth College. Jeffrey described how he made the meme using photoshop as well as well as how this meme has been spread throughout the Dartmouth student body by way of the meme page, text messages, and email. While this meme is primarily enjoyed by Dartmouth students, it could be spread and altered by other students who feel they have a strong emphasis on corporate culture at their school.
- Cultural Context:
- The cultural context of this meme reflects on the large portion of Dartmouth students who end up working in the finance or consulting industries after they graduate. Many students come to Dartmouth with creativity and passions for things other than the business world, but they end up being drawn into finance or consulting by the perceived prestige of the industries as well as the significant financial benefit both industries provide. The culture at Dartmouth praises students who land prestigious jobs at well-known firms and ignores those who don’t, and as a result, many students end up being funneled into corporate America while at Dartmouth.
Item
:
Informant’s Comments:
- Jeffrey mentioned that he’s witnessed many people he knows at Dartmouth lose their aspirations for art and creativity, and that experience serves as the basis for this meme. He also noted that this meme is popular amongst Dartmouth students because most students at Dartmouth have also probably witnessed people who originally had other career plans get sucked into finance or corporate America.
Collector’s Comments:
- Jeffrey seemed to be very fond of this meme, as it is very applicable and pointed to the Dartmouth community. However, he didn’t seem to be criticizing Dartmouth as much as he was simply pointing out a phenomenon that occurs here. I find this meme very funny and also very spot-on. This is a very real phenomenon at Dartmouth.
Collector’s Name: Bryce Killian
Tags/Keywords: Dartmouth. Meme. Finance. Consulting. Corporate Culture.