Delaine has crabs.
This is the statement I found one day in my high school bathroom, mocking me in silver Sharpie. And while I was horrified then, I now think about it and laugh, knowing that I’m not the only one who has been subjected to malicious, yet highly unoriginal rumors.
After recently visiting the new anonymous Internet board, the College ACB, I don’t really understand why people still find the need to use these sites.
As the replacement for JuicyCampus, ACB has become the Internet watering hole for salacious gossip and mudslinging rumors, although its mission statement says otherwise.
‘The College ACB or College Anonymous Confession Board seeks to give students a place to vent, rant and talk to college peers in an environment free from social constraints and about subjects that might otherwise be taboo,’ according to the Web site.
I do give credit to the few early posters who seemed to have a higher level of conversation on the agenda, but of course those posts were only waiting for the retaliation of ‘You’re a fag,’ or ‘Get some balls.’
Now the most common posts are ‘Who is the biggest slut on campus?’ or ‘Who hasn’t Jane Doe slept with?’
Watching random people on the Internet insult each other can seem entertaining, just as long as you’re a third person. But what is the point of creating 12 different ‘slut lists’ just to see the same few names come up, usually from sororities and fraternities.
The complete anonymity of the Web site does not create a safe social environment for students to discuss their innermost feelings. Instead, it creates a breeding ground for the simple-minded to continue showing the world how stupid they really are.
There definitely is a need for a social Web site where all students can feel welcomed and where those who actually want to use their brain can go to discuss topics such as politics or sexuality or even just where the good places to meet new people are.
However, with anonymous boards such as ACB, people have no incentive to write anything tasteful – not even a decent rant about how their economics teacher ruined their day. Instead we get unoriginal, malicious insults we have all heard a thousand times before.
It’s time for people to wake up and realize college is not only about seeing who is easy to get with or how to make that cheating bastard pay. I would like to think we have evolved from writing gossip on the bathroom wall.
Personally I don’t care who is having an affair with the coach, but what I would like to know is students’ perspective on the war or how they plan to land a job after graduation. That would be a more productive use of our time, with or without anonymity on the Internet.
So let’s put down our silver Sharpies and actually hold an intelligent conversation – one that doesn’t aim to backstab a friend or ruin someone’s reputation with overplayed insults.
And, for the record, I don’t have crabs – just in case you were wondering. But I did find the comment more entertaining, and slightly more bearable, when someone added in ‘hermit crabs.’
