Last Wednesday, January 30, Minneapolis was deep within the polar vortex of 2019, with bone chilling wind chills down to -60 degrees. This hazardous weather led the University of Minnesota to close its doors at 12 p.m. on Tuesday, January 29 and reopen them on Thursday, January 31. As many students will say in disbelief, this was a rare occurrence.

However, along with stupid cold weather comes a bunch of stupid and literally cold students, who want to reap fame on the Barstool Gophers account, a non-university affiliated social media business that virally posts user-generated content on Twitter and Instagram. If you are not familiar with Barstool, then you are probably living under a rock, or in the basement of Bailey Hall.

On January 29, Barstool posted a user-submitted Snapchat, a picture of a man in basketball shorts and a white cutoff, with the caption, “Absolute psycho” and the temperature stamp, which revealed a bone-chilling 11 degrees… without windchill.

Another snap came through on the coldest day, with a picture from Anthony Souffle, photographer for Star Tribune, who captured a male student with above-the-knee shorts on January 30. Souffle’s series captured numerous shots of the deep freeze; however, this one caught Barstool’s eye as well.

The caption read, “A University of Minnesota student crossed University Avenue in shorts today. He wouldn’t give his name because he said his mom would be mad at him.”

All facts aside, this is entirely and utterly idiotic. Although Minnesotans pride themselves in being these rugged individuals able to survive the deepest of arctic freezes, we are still human. Frostbite will happen within five minutes (at the temperatures when the above photos were taken), and it is not a matter of surviving or not, it is a dead certainty that you will get hurt.

Although students pride themselves in being mentally tough, another factor to consider is that temperatures like this will not only harm your skin and limbs, but your entire body.

As Business Insider stated, “Extremely cold temperature can also cause hypothermia, when the body’s temperature dips below 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Warning signs include uncontrollable shivering, memory loss, disorientation, incoherence, slurred speech, drowsiness, and obvious exhaustion.”

Furthermore, nobody is going to look at someone and say “Wow! Good for you!” They are going to raise their brows and give wild looks at other passerbyers, a mental agreement that you are an idiot. 

Barstool has single handedly created an environment where students will do dumb things just for internet fame. However, this is not what they are going to receive. Although all Barstool affiliates seem to share with one another, the accounts are largely spam-driven meme accounts for entertainment purposes. There is nothing wrong with this, as many viewers get a laugh or a smirk out of looking at their posts.

However, going out of your way to get recognized is idiotic. Especially if it means putting your health on the line.

Sure, a student may shotgun a beer in a unique way, or jump on a beer pong table and break it for views, and although these display more risky party culture, the idea of putting yourself at danger, where the risks are not a “maybe” but a “certainty,” is dumb.

Although Barstool is the common meeting spot for displays of idiotic behavior, I alone have received 14 snaps of individuals on campus walking around with little to no clothes.

So no, you are not impressing anyone with your attire. You are putting your health on the line and your peers are wondering how you were smart enough to get accepted into this university.

Put some clothes on, don’t freeze your toes off.