Who is umichgreg? Meet the account romanticizing the U-M campus

Who is umichgreg? Meet the account romanticizing the U-M campus Screenshot courtesy of Aanya Panyadahundi. While mindlessly scrolling on TikTok, a familiar scene suddenly appears on the screen. Yellow-golden light spills off the bricks of a West Hall, the same building that hosts hundreds of students for 8 a.m. lectures. Taylor Swift’s “mirrorball” plays in the background.  The @umichgreg TikTok account is allowing students to slow down and experience the University of Michigan through romanticized snapshots of life on campus.  Since the creation of the TikTok account on Sept. 6, umichgreg has gained more than 2,000 followers and 75,000 likes across its 24 videos. The concept is based on the viral account @nycgreg, also known as Greg. Greg gained popularity by posting scenic videos of New York City — ranging from the Brooklyn Bridge to random trees on Greg’s daily route — often paired with a Taylor Swift song. Posting multiple times a day, the account now has more than 700,000 followers and 135 million likes.  Many have taken inspiration from Greg’s popularity and created similar accounts specific to their universities. Accounts such as @iowastategreg and @mizzougreg have applied the concept to their own schools, highlighting the beauty of campus.  The creator of the umichgreg account, an LSA freshman, has requested to keep their identity anonymous. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, umichgreg explained how the account came to be.  “I wondered if we had (a greg TikTok account) for Michigan, and then I looked up and there was nothing,” umichgreg said. “I was like, ‘This is totally something I could do.’ … It started off as an inside joke between me and my friends because I take so many videos or pictures of our campus.” According to umichgreg, each video takes about 10 to 15 minutes to make. They draw inspiration from their walks on campus or recommendations for certain sounds and visuals from comments on TikTok. Though umichgreg has no prior history in cinematography or editing, after their first video got 10,000 likes, umichgreg said it inspired them to learn more about videomaking.  “I kind of locked in, and I figured out the proper ways to take videos to make them more stable and less shaky,” umichgreg said. “But still, I try to keep it lighthearted. I don’t want to take it too seriously because I feel like if I take it too seriously, it ruins the fun behind it and the de-stress factor of it.” In an interview with The Daily, Kinesiology sophomore Vivian Alexander said she thinks the umichgreg account encourages people to explore and gain an appreciation for different parts of campus.  “I definitely think that it helps maybe new UMich students get to know the campus a little more and see what’s happening,” Alexander said. “They’ve definitely made me think more about what I get to do here as a student, while I go through all these places like every day, seeing them on social media and seeing them famous kind of makes me think how lucky I am to be a part of all of it.” Alexander said the anonymity of the account contributes to the account being a shared community space.  “There’s no opinion going into it,” Alexander said. “It’s an outside perspective, and people don’t really know who’s running it. They don’t have any withstanding bias against who’s running it.” Engineering freshman Aarav Singh told The Daily he believes umichgreg makes students feel more connected to one another and represents the University positively — a sign of students’ true school spirit. “I feel like our college having our own Greg makes us feel part of a bigger community,” Singh said. “I think it does represent UMich and the light that it should be seen in, where people see the beautiful campus, the people, the energy, the vibes and this little sense of community with Greg.” Daily News Contributors Katelyn Cambeiro and and Julia Moore can be reached at kcambe@umich.edu and juliamo@umich.edu.  Related articles