Written by: Alyssa DeNisco ’14 and Kendall Trewin ‘14
Published April 2014
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Most colleges throughout
the country have at least one “confession” site that allows students to submit
anything they would like to anonymously fess up to via social media.
Confessions range from the innocent: “I think you’re pretty” to the intimate:
“I cheat on my girlfriend”, to the insensitive (see above picture).
Harvard, Tufts, University
of Notre Dame, Kansas State University, Louisiana State University, Eastern
Illinois University and the University of Alabama, to name a few, all currently
have active confession sites. Given the
wide spread demographic of these Universities, it is no doubt that the college
confessional trend has caught on faster among 18-25 year olds than the latest
Apple product. Until recently, these
sites were limited to Facebook, but have now started to become more prevalent
on other forms of social media, namely Twitter.
For those of you who have
not yet joined the twitter world, “tweeting” is when you post a 140-character
message on your “feed” through your twitter name or “handle”. The main difference between Twitter and
Facebook is that Twitter doesn’t require as much information to create a
profile, making it much easier to create and maintain anonymous accounts. Now,
it is important to point out that “anonymous accounts” and “confessional
accounts” are two separate beasts. “Anoym accounts” are run by one or more
people who write and post tweets under a fake name. On a “confessional account” tweets are
submitted to a separate website, like survey monkey, that maintains the
senders’ anonymity. The administrators
who run the account then post the tweets on their feed using quotation marks to
distinguish what was submitted from any comments they added.
Though Randolph prides
itself in offering an alternative to what many would consider “a typical
college experience”, i.e. a Greek system, Professors who know you only as a
number and a graduation that lasts for days, we did not manage to escape the anonymous
twitter craze.
Anonymous accounts started
in the class of 2014’s freshman year, three years ago. @wanda_knows_all, the prequel to @RandyProblems,
would tweet about the weekend happenings on campus, usually calling out
specific people by name. We can only assume that someone reported the account
to Twitter as harassment, because it was only up for a few weeks before being
deleted.
Shortly after the
‘original’ Randolph associated twitter handle was shut down, @RandyProblems
took over. Though it was still operated by one, or a few, Randolph students,
they did not post tweets nearly as scandalous as their predecessors. Instead of
blatant digs at specific people, most of the content was school-wide inside
jokes. The tweets were more about the experience of going to a formally
all-women’s, private liberal arts school, than explicitly singling out people’s
personal lives. Of course, some of the tweets incited online twitter riots. Like
that time they tweeted about why the Equestrian Team was invited to the
athletic banquet was so uncalled for, not that we’re biased or anything.
We recently got in contact
with @RandyProblems via email. Unfortunately, @RandyProblems was not able to
get us in contact with any of the other accounts. Here’s what they had to say:
Sundial: “Why did you
start the account?”
@RandyProblems: “I
started the account to poke fun at our own lil’ Randolph, I thought everyone
could have a chuckle at it.”
Sundial: “Do you think
it has affected the campus community positively? Negatively? Maybe a little of
both?”
@RandyProblems: “Both.
Obviously, some people can tend to get more offended than others, but they
shouldn't be taking anything too serious.”
Sundial: “What do you
think of all the other Randy pages that have been cropping up?”
@RandyProblems:
“Some of them are kind of entertaining but nothings better than the original
;)”
Sundial: “Do you have
anything to do with them?”
@RandyProblems: “We
are all part of the inner Randolph social circle, kind of like the illuminati.”
Sundial: “What are you
going to do once you graduate? Pass it down?”
@RandyProblems: “Not
sure. Maybe John Klein or Harvey can run it?”
Sundial: “If you could
say one thing to Randolph what would it be?”
@RandyProblems: “Don't
ruin the fun, let us enjoy college!”
Those who have been here
for the entire anoym twitter boom will tell you that Randy Problems helped
build a bridge between the academic and athletic divide in some ways. Making
light fun of those early morning wake-ups that we’re all so fond of, or
tweeting snarky commentary on dining hall horrors—c’mon, we all remember taco
dogs—reminded us that we all live behind the same red brick wall.
@RandyConfession brought it to a whole new
level.
@RandyConfession really
does come off as a beneficial to the campus community: “Have a confession? Let
us know!” is featured as their tagline. It seemed like a healthy way for
students to express themselves without creating real gossip. However, at a school as small as ours, it is
not hard to guess who is writing what about who. Within the first week, cheeky
confessions turned into obvious attacks.
Names got dropped, and personal information was either fabricated or
exploited.
When you demand that 600
18-25 year olds live and work in the same place, it is obvious that there will
be a cutthroat rumor mill. These accounts can certainly be entertaining if the
tweets are witty enough, but don’t we already know WAY too much about each
other’s lives? Putting it in print solidifies gossip in an un-healthy way,
making divisions between cliques more defined.
And don’t think that we
are getting away with it without administration knowing. Dean Thornton was made
aware of the accounts a year ago.
However, she stated that administration’s main concern at this point is
the use of the college logos on the account profiles rather than the content of
the accounts. As of yet they have not yet reported the copyright infringement
to Twitter.
Though the priority at the
moment is maintaining the integrity of the school’s logos, Dean Thornton does
recognize the potential for these accounts to have damaging effects on students.
“Because this behavior is being conducted anonymously online, I must stress the
important role each of our students play in making sure our community is safe
and respectful to all,” stated The Dean in an email interview last week. She urges students to report any instances of
harassment or bullying to DOS immediately because “harassing and intimidating
members of our community is unacceptable and a violation of the student
handbook.”
So, what do we do now?
Shut down the pages? Turn each other in? Start more gossip and drama for our
selves by getting people expelled over this? Here’s an idea, how about we start
submitting actual confessions instead of passive aggressive commentary. This is
not a call to clean up your act Randy. Twitter is not the place for loud, proud
and positive messages, by any means; but it should not be the reason another
chapter is added to our handbook either. So the next time you find your little
thumbs itching for anonymity behind the redbrick wall, submit the story of how
you got drunk and peed in your trashcan. Leave the snarky sub-tweet about that
girl you can’t stand in your draft folder, however wittily you made it rhyme.
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