The "Burnerverse" Is Effectively Ruining a College Student's Reputation and It's Not OK

This has been the summer of memes between the Hawk Tuah girl and now, Lily Lang.

For those who have been out of the loop, Twitter has been running rampant with memes and rumors about an SEC college student named Lily Lang, a hot topic in the “Burnerverse.”

As the memes gain more and more traction, those who aren’t part of the Burnerverse have a lot of questions.

For one, what even is this so-called Burnerverse? While millennials have been chronically online most of our lives, we are still a step behind Gen Z and Gen Alpha when it comes to the "memeification" of nearly everything that goes even a little bit viral.

But don’t worry — we’re here to break it all down, from what the Burnerverse is to what Lily Lang has to do with it.

Back in the old-school days of millennials, we coined the term “burner” to describe a temporary phone or device used for sketchy activities, such as dealing drugs or having affairs.

In the mid-2000s, the cell phone device wasn’t crazy expensive, especially if it was an old model, and with a temporary calling and texting card, people could easily get burner phones for $20 or less that would be used just a couple of times.

But nowadays, a burner phone wouldn’t make any sense — if you want a device with communication apps like Whatsapp and iMessage, there aren’t any cheap options. However, social media has opened up in a way that allows people to create “fake” or anonymous accounts.

Following in the footsteps of their forefathers, the internet has coined the term “Burnerverse” to describe all these temporary, anonymous accounts.

However, burner accounts do have some notable differences from burner phones. The biggest difference is that the goal with a burner account is anonymity (to a degree) in order to spread gossip, start social media feuds, and troll on other people’s actual accounts.

In a way, burner accounts are much more damaging than a burner phone because they can spread far beyond the interaction between two people. Any sentiment shared by a burner account has the capacity to go viral, such as in the case of Lily Lang.

If you think the Burnerverse sounds like something incels (involuntary celibates) would take an interest in, you would be right. The account that began the rumors about Lily was named Arthur Cacciatore and had a photo of the Confederate flag as the profile picture.

“Hey bud….its art here, just wanted to let ya down easy….your uhhh girlfriend? Yeah so she may or may not have had sex with like 35% of the SEC. Solid head tho…stay strong brother,” the account owner wrote.

The tweet and account have since been deleted, proving the temporary nature of the Burnerverse. Even still, Lily’s reputation could be permanently damaged because of the anonymous gossip.

Several Redditors and other internet activists have been quick to point out the hypocrisy that these guys spreading the rumors about Lily are the same ones that would leap into bed with her given the opportunity.

While some believe the rumors, asking why they would target Lily if they aren’t true, we have to disagree. There are plenty of men who spread rumors about women when those women turn them down or make decisions they disagree with.

Lily is just a freshman at the University of Tennessee who has her entire life ahead of her, and we’re not going to let some dumb SEC Burnerverse ruin her reputation.