Nowadays, almost anything you do in public can be blasted all over the internet. Even the most mundane of tasks could become the internet’s next obsession. A teacher at Howard University probably assumed that grading some papers on a flight was not going to wind up all over social media. But a half million likes and retweets later, Twitter is obsessed with the identity of one failing student.
It started when “roy,” a graphic designer, tweeted out that he saw a Howard University professor grading papers on a flight. One person’s test stuck out to him.
This professor graded tests next to me the whole flight. If there’s a Taiwan Jones at Howard, boy you failed the fuck out ya midterm 😩
— uncle roy (@Old_Orleans) October 19, 2017
I just feel bad cuz lil buddy finna enjoy his weekend just come back to class, life in shambles.
— uncle roy (@Old_Orleans) October 19, 2017
Rough life. Immediately, Twitter started a hashtag to try and find the student.
https://twitter.com/Tookiex/status/921109363057741831
https://twitter.com/nandi116/status/921201636898418690
https://twitter.com/RonWalk3r/status/921214060737253377
https://twitter.com/DMGilchrist/status/921196040660881408
And it worked.
— Taiwan Jones (@JonesTaiwan_) October 20, 2017
He said a friend saw the viral tweet and sent it to him.
How’d you end up finding out about the tweet. Did a friend see it and tell you or did you come across it in your TL. Sorry about your midterm but this is funny stuff.
— Brent Wentworth (@brent_wentworth) October 20, 2017
Ya my boi Moe sent me this and my heart straight dropped pic.twitter.com/RUNmy69Dul
— Taiwan Jones (@JonesTaiwan_) October 20, 2017
Jones even responded to people who were hunting for him.
Well the search is over…
— Taiwan Jones (@JonesTaiwan_) October 20, 2017
Some were worried his parents might not appreciate their son bombing out of college.
https://twitter.com/kimberlymallen2/status/921129869840388096
But… nah.
Trust me they aint gonna find out
— Taiwan Jones (@JonesTaiwan_) October 20, 2017
One person even took it upon himself to fix Jones’ Twitter bio.
— Klint Peterson, Manchild (@KlintonwithaK) October 20, 2017
The only problem with all this? There’s more than one Taiwan Jones on Twitter. Both have Howard University in their bios, but that’s easy enough to add before tweeting.
https://twitter.com/TaiwanJones_/status/921177623140687872
Even weirder, Howard doesn’t show any records for a Taiwan Jones in its directory. It’s possible that the student is enrolled with another name but goes by Taiwan.
Neither Taiwan Jones responded to requests for comment on Twitter.