By: Katrina Bruno / Contributing Writer
Lately, I feel as if I involuntarily boarded the DeLorean and have been sent back to the golden days of high school, where gossip and mean girls reigned supreme. Its hard not to feel like a 16-year-old again every time I hear another rumor being passed around our campus, especially when it’s stemming from an anonymous website.
In case you haven’t heard, College Anonymous Message Board, usually referred to as College ACB, is a website where students are free to gossip and rant about fellow classmates and faculty on campus. Like the now-defunct Juicycampus.com, this successful protégé is making a name for itself. The University’s student populaton seems to love the website, with over 90 pages filled with gossip, injurious comments and remarks.
Not only is this website unnecessary, but I believe that its existence and use is terrible for the University. The website taints the way the outside world views the maturity and levelheadedness of our student body, but more important than anything, puts the safety of our students at risk.
Collegeacb.com has allowed individuals to create posts about anything they want and offers an opportunity for anyone to respond anonymously without consequences or repercussions. Some topics from the University’s collegeacb.com page bash and name-drop women and men who are perceived to be “slutty,” releases the names of student porn stars and strippers, accuses others of drug addictions, criticizes certain individuals because of their weight, makes racist remarks about African Americans and Hispanics and offers specific fictional or factual stories about our peers.
While I believe there are positive aspects to anonymous forums, especially in college where we are encouraged to think, feel, and express ourselves freely, I believe when the anonymity is abused, it should be possible to strip away the anonymity and reveal who the bully in an effort to correct the situation or stop any potential harm.
College students spend much of their time communicating online, through Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, instant messaging and email, so it is easy to understand how quick these websites are able to be shared from person to person so quickly. With the emergence of these sites, students have the opportunity to gossip about their fellow peers without realizing the significant damage it can do to another’s self-esteem or reputation. It seems that although collegeacb.com is looked down upon by a significant number of students, there are still many, unfortunately, who believe it is acceptable to participate in this type of callous gossip.
It’s important to take a step out of your shoes and into another every time you click “send” and potentially cause harm to another student psychologically or physically. Cyber-bullying is potentially very dangerous. According to statistics reported by ABC News, “nearly 30 percent of students are either bullies or victims, and 160,000 kids stay home from school every day because of bullying.”
There have been many reported cases that show children, teens and adults alike going as far as committing suicide. Our University should be a place where no one is afraid to be who he or she is and a place where one is free from cruel and malicious treatment on the web.
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