Image courtesy of twitter

With the daily stresses of school, friends, and family weighing down on every student at Oakton, it can be important to have a place to go to rant, vent, or simply express one’s opinions as a way of relieving some of that stress. And that, in a nutshell, is the purpose of the student-run OHS Thoughts Instagram page. The page was founded, presumably by a student at Oakton, this year, and has already garnered an impressive amount of followers, more than many Oakton students possess. OG followers have seen its numbers jump from those of a small-time account to a well-known page with 900+ followers. 

To truly understand the influence OHS Thoughts has, one must first understand the trying life of the average Oakton student. Here is a group of 2,500 kids who get up every day at 6:30 am, five days a week, and come home each day with mounds of work, the gradebook, and college pressures to drag them down. Regardless of one’s view on the current workload, this is the world in which students live, and it is a world in which merely having someone to talk to can be the difference between failing and surviving the school year. Even more therapeutic is the idea that a group of people, fellow students, share the exact same problems and feel that same need to vent their emotions, opinions, and stresses to anyone who would listen. It’s in this way that the basis of true community has its foundations, and how the Instagram page has grown so quickly as an influence on the students of Oakton. “We wanted to hear the opinions of our classmates and create a community where everyone can openly share their opinions,” said the anonymous account creator in a recent interview.

A huge attribution to OHS Thought’s success is its willingness to post just about anything it receives. Students submit their thoughts, confessions, and ideas to the account via direct message on Instagram, and these thoughts are then posted anonymously in the following hours. From pictures of trash cans in the OHS toilets to personal student opinions and ideas to questions about the due-dates of certain assignments, the page provides an unbiased and unfiltered collection of all the happenings at Oakton. This policy might have some drawbacks, however. “It’s a good place where students have the freedom to say what they want and have their voices heard,” says Sarah Janson (10), “but at the same time this page could cause some serious problems with other students and administrations if something said goes too far.”

Lastly, the biggest mystery surrounding the account is the owner. There has of course been some speculation, but the simple truth is that it could literally be anyone in the school. When asked if they would reveal their identity, the account creator mused, “Maybe we’ll do a face reveal someday. Probably not for awhile though.”

One thing is for sure; anonymous or not, OHS Thoughts will continue to act as an innovative way for students to release their stresses and ideas to a safe community setting.