On the Internet, Nobody Knows You’re an Ant

There are many strange things on the internet. Some of these things are stranger than others. Perhaps one of the strangest is this Facebook group where everyone pretends to be ants. This is not a joke. The group’s about page reads, “In this group we are ants. We worship The Queen and do ant stuff. Welcome to the colony.” At the time of this writing, the group has more than 213,000 members and has not been slowed at all by the current pandemic. In fact, it has gained more than 10,000 members in the past week and shows no signs of stopping.

Posts in the group follow the ant theme pretty much how you would expect. One user commented, “I am tired of bringing food to the Queen to justify my existence. When does it end? When can I have some of the food I bring home? When will I see the value of my labor?” While the rules of the group forbid “antarchy”, apparently ant-activism is still allowed. Members of the group also go by ant names, which consist of the word ant followed by their name. (“ant-Joe”) While some ants advocate for more equal wealth distribution, others simply offer “BITE. BITE. BITE BITE.” repeatedly. Every once in the while a massive group project breaks out, with thousands of members gathering together to forget the troubles of the world and frantically search for a missing larva in a fictional ant whodunnit. In a time when everybody is stressed, apparently some people just want to sit back, relax, and pretend to be ants.

We would just like to reiterate, this is not a joke. This group is completely real. Check it out at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1416375691836223/about. Anybody is allowed to join.