“I sometimes follow this business major around, but he doesn’t even know I exist. I even sit in on classes I don’t have just to watch him.”
This is just one of the many thought-provoking and cringe-worthy confessions that can be seen on the CSULB Confessions Facebook page.
With apps like “Whisper” climbing the Apple App chart, and other universities creating similar confession pages, it was only a matter of time before Cal State Long Beach jumped on the anonymous confessions bandwagon. The confessions page on Facebook has been spreading like wildfire since last Wednesday. With nearly 2,500 “likes” in a week, this page has become a guilty pleasure for students and confessors alike.
Page creator Brandon Osborn, a junior health science major, who is also one of many administrators on the popular CSULB memes page, created the page in order to compete with other schools like Univeristy of California, San Diego, whose confessions page currently has more than 5,000 likes on Facebook.
“I actually waited a while to make this page, simply because I wanted someone else to start it up, but the reason I started [it] is because other schools had one, and we didn’t. It had to be done,” Osborn said.
The main question this page raises is, why? Why have students gravitated towards this page? What makes it so intriguing?
Ryan Martinez, senior communications major, said he thinks he has the answer.
“I think that people have this need to confess, on a psychological level, and when there is a degree of anonymity they can confess and still be in their comfort zone,” Martinez said. “People do things secretly and want it to be known publicly. This page provides that without having to completely put yourself out there.”
However, that may not be the case. Because of the novelty of an anonymous page, students are dying to contribute, even if they have nothing to say.
“I considered making up a post to put on here just because I don’t have anything interesting enough to confess,” one contributor said.
In a way, the page seems to be a sort of popularity contest. Many posters have allegedly fabricated outrageous confessions in order to win a plethora of likes or ignite a conversation in the comments below.
“[People are using this page] to get stuff off their chest or make jokes,” George Nazaroff, a senior linguistics major, said. “Most of this stuff seems fake, and some of it is pretty funny. [For example] ‘Sometimes after I answer a question in class I whisper bitch under my breath.’ That’s pretty funny.”
Whether the overall objective of this page is to be funny or to be a cathartic release of secrets is up to the user, but it seems that people perusing the page are “liking” the more risqué, disgusting and offensive posts.
“[I’ve learned] that sometimes it’s difficult to be objective and allow free speech even though [I] completely disagree with what is being said,” Osborn said.
Previous submissions have had to do with the sexual and sometimes nasty escapades that happen on campus. For example: “I sometimes watch porn on my laptop in the library,” and “I work in the dining hall and I’ve farted in every burger I’ve ever made,” are some of the more mild, yet weird, posts that can be found on this page.
This page has already become a hub for the delinquents and the lovesick people on campus, and one thing is for sure. In the words of one confessor, “After reading these posts school will never be the same.”
