Once there was a high school where a group of three girls kept a “burn book” filled with embarrassing pictures and mean comments of everyone at their school. One day someone found that book, made copies of all the pages and spread them all across the campus for everyone to see. When everyone found out what these girls had been saying about them, they were all pretty upset.
On one level, this story is a sad description of how gossip can affect people.
On another level, this story is a Lindsay Lohan movie called “Mean Girls.”
I used to think that burn books and malicious gossip only existed in high schools and movies set in high schools, but then I discovered JuicyCampus.com
If you haven’t heard, JuicyCampus.com is a website where college students can post gossip about their peers anonymously. In recent months, the website has made headlines because students, schools and defamation groups all across the country have argued that some of the site’s postings are malicious and libelous.
After learning that our school has a hallowed section on the website, I decided to see what all the controversy was about.
As expected, I found a lot of threads centered around juicy questions. There were the “[Who are] the fattest stoners in the Greek system?” threads, the “Who is f—ing who?” threads and, of course, the “Who has the smallest dick?” threads. Certainly there were some tamer postings like “Who throws the best parties?” but, for the most part, the discussion topics were pretty crude.
My initial reaction to opening up some of these threads was relief that my name wasn’t anywhere to be found, although it would have been nice to open up that “Who has the smallest dick?” thread and found “everyone but Simon” posted.
As I read more and more of the threads, however, my relief turned into disappointment.
There are seriously dozens of threads where people outright accuse others of sleeping around, doing drugs, having human papillomavirus and having a small wang. In many cases, first and last names were given.
I expect high school students to be into spreading rumors like this. They’re so immature and awkward that they don’t know how their actions may affect others.
College students, on the other hand, should have enough life experience and common sense to know that writing “so and so is a slut” or “so and so has HPV” on a website where anyone (including family members and potential employers) can read it is just wrong.
Come on, aren’t we all young adults here?
I know I stopped caring about gossip once I had more important things to worry about – like shaving.
I think those who are spending their time writing these posts should put down the Tamagotchi and come to terms with the fact that they’re not in high school anymore.
If the “Plastics” from “Mean Girls” can stop “burning” others, so can they.
Simon Barta is a senior English major and an assistant opinions editor for the Daily Forty-Niner.
