Maybe the recession isn’t so bad after all. On Feb. 5, the Internet got just a little more civil when JuicyCampus.com shut down after a year and a half online. It seems that the campus gossip site was too popular for its own good, as its founder Matt Ivester explained in a farewell note that ‘JuicyCampus’ exponential growth outpaced [its] ability to muster the resources needed to survive this economic downturn.’ There’s cause for celebration now that the site – home to vicious gossip -‘ is no more, but don’t get too excited just yet.
Online gossip is by no means disappearing with the closure of JuicyCampus. The website now directs to a new anonymous posting sight, the ‘College Anonymous Confession Board,’ which promises to have ‘several key differences’ from Juicy Campus.’ Peter Frank, a freshman at Wesleyan University and the owner of the ACB, claims that he wants to ‘promote deep and thoughtful discussion.’ However, even a cursory glance at Boston University’s section in ACB shows that the website may be different, but the content remains just as tasteless.
We can rail against JuicyCampus and any sites that aim to copy it all we want, but they don’t deserve all the blame. These sites are simply outlets for students’ guilty pleasure of gossiping. Before students addicted to posting and reading online gossip migrate in force to the ACB, they should consider dropping the habit altogether. Gossiping about others with friends is one of the lowest forms of communication to begin with, and the bar is only lowered when the act is taken online in an anonymous fashion. As the old saying goes, if you can’t say it to someone’s face, don’t say it at all.
JuicyCampus became so popular because it made gossiping easy -‘- and anonymous. As long as this option is still available online, feelings are still going to be hurt and reputations will continue to be tarnished as a result of gossip. College students need to take this opportunity to prove that they are better than this and make sure that the memory of JuicyCampus does not live on.
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