"I'm
a compulsive laundry room thief," says one Facebook confession. "I'm
the reason the 'Public Urination is Illegal' signs were put up at Coyote
Village," says another.
"I sold books for the
semester to go to South Padre for spring break... Gotta pay for the
booze somehow," reveals yet another poster.
By
turns rueful and raunchy, these anonymous admissions pop up on 'campus
confession' pages unofficially linked to scores of high schools and
universities.
Like many social media trends,
the confession craze captivates teenagers and 20-somethings - but alarms
teachers, law enforcement officers and counselors.
"It's
another creative venue where kids are able to say hurtful things, and
that's frustrating," said Sameer Hinduja, co-director of the
Cyberbullying Research Center at Florida Atlantic University.
At
the same time, the pages can sometimes offer a catharsis of sorts,
attracting heartfelt disclosures from students struggling with
depression, alcoholism or eating disorders. Classmates often respond
with links to counseling sites and offers to talk.
The
anonymity of confession pages is at the core of their appeal, and they
use a simple workaround to Facebook's general insistence that people use
their real identity on the social network.
Students
who set up confessional pages must do so under their real names, as per
Facebook policy. But they can choose to cloak their identity as page
administrators. To keep posts anonymous, they use free online survey
tools such as SurveyMonkey or Google Forms. Confessors simply click on a
link to open up a blank box where they can type their tell-all.
The page administrator doesn't see identifying information - just the latest confession.
The
pages then prompt visitors to show admiration for the juiciest
confessions by "liking" them and posting comments - often smart-aleck
remarks that can draw fan bases of their own.
"The more outrageous comments attract more attention... so there's little incentive to exercise restraint," Hinduja said.
Alisen
Lafaive found that out quickly when she began reading the Facebook
confession page for Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York. "At first,
I thought, 'Ooh, Clarkson Confessions! This ought to be juicy!'" said
Lafaive, a junior. Then she began scrolling through posts filled with
crude invective toward women.
"These things
are mean," she said. "My feelings are hurt even though none of it's
directed toward me." She posted a plea for courtesy but was ignored.
The
confessions pages do not violate Facebook rules so long as the content
remains within the bounds of civility, said a spokeswoman for the social
network. But the pages have drawn complaints from some from principals,
college administrators and police.
Dismayed
by the content on two high-school confession pages in Kalispell, Montana
last month, police asked Facebook to shut them down. Facebook closed
one and removed offensive comments from another - but the student
instigators simply started a third page, said Jason Parce, a police
officer in Kalispell.
Parce threatened to
charge participants with defamation and they quickly pulled down their
posts. Though some posts were anonymous, many comments came in through
Facebook accounts so the writers could easily be identified.
"There
was a lot of sexually explicit content directed at specific individuals
and a lot of hateful language being used," said Parce. "Absolutely,
kids are more willing to be crude when they don't have to face anyone.
They hide behind the computer."
High-school pages in Idaho and Arizona have also been shut down after school officials moved to investigate offensive posts.
Safeguards
Administrators
of several confession sites told Reuters that they review each
submission and refuse to post any that seem inappropriate.
Facebook
also routinely reviews pages on its site and responds to any complaints
about content. If its reviewers deem a post objectionable, the social
network will remove it or shut down the site entirely, the Facebook
spokeswoman said.
None of these safeguards can
determine whether those posting and commenting on confessions are bona
fide students of a particular school.
At the
college level, the concern isn't bullying so much as brand protection.
Universities including San Francisco State have asked confession sites
to stop using school logos and photographs of iconic buildings for fear
that outsiders might mistake the many tales of alcohol-fueled sexual
conquests for an official depiction of campus life.
Despite,
or perhaps because of, official disapproval, the fad continues to gain
steam - and may be helping Facebook regain some of its allure among
teens and college students. A recent poll by an online survey tool,
Survata, found teens and young adults aged 13 to 25 used microblogging
platform Tumblr more than Facebook.
Scores of
Facebook confession pages have popped up in recent months, at small
private colleges and huge state universities. Princeton, Harvard and
Yale have pages. So does Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon.
Some
campuses have Twitter confession accounts as well but Facebook remains
the most popular medium. The University of Wisconsin-Madison's
confessions page has racked up more than 21,000 Facebook "likes." The
University of Hawaii at Manoa has nearly 12,000. College students in
India, New Zealand and Great Britain are baring their secrets online,
too.
"It just makes me laugh," said Matt
Miller, a biology major at the University of Hawaii who checks out his
classmates' confessions several times a day. Among the recent posts: a
lament about the difficulty of conversing with beautiful brunettes, an
admission about a romantic relationship with a teaching assistant, and a
cryptic, "Majoring in mathematics. Judge me."
The
campus confessionals teem with references to specific dorms, classes,
fraternities and traditions, giving them an intimate, gossip-over-coffee
feel. Many have also become forums for posting secret crushes: "To the
boy in Art History with the long hair and blue shoes. You're so cute!!"
The pages can also offer a lifeline to struggling students.
"I
want to pass on hope to people who feel like they don't have any," said
Stephanie Suchecki, a graduate student at the University of
Wisconsin-Green Bay who makes a point of responding to the most
wrenching posts.
Moments of compassion, however, are often swamped by the lewd and the crude - just how some confession junkies like it.
An
administrator of the Arizona State University confessions site recently
goaded readers to ramp up their revelations: "What happened to your
crazy stories!?!? Hook ups gone bad?! Party gone crazy?! Come on guys!
This is ASU!"
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