Remember those slam books that used to circulate around middle schools and high schools when we were younger? Or the Burn Book that led to that day of sisterhood bonding after it was discovered in Mean Girls? [If you were lucky enough to miss out on this tween trend or are the only person on earth who hasn't seen Mean Girls, slam books were notebooks that got passed around, in which everybody could write their thoughts and feelings about another person without adding their name – and those thoughts and feelings were usually very negative and very hurtful]

Remember that horrible feeling you would get when you saw your name, terrified to read the comments but also unable to resist it? Remember how happy you were when those years were over and slam books were behind you?

Well, they’re back, they’re online and they’re worse than ever.
And you can create one for yourself?

Welcome to Formspring.com.

Formspring.com was originally made as a website where people could post anonymous questions on a person’s page for them to answer. I’m not sure of the exact reason for creating this site website, or why people would use it, but I’d like to think that it started with innocent intentions; a way for people to find out more about you without having to flat-out ask. However, like most things on the Internet, the site quickly morphed into something else.

Formspring in its current form has become a place where people can talk some major sh*t, and do some completely anonymously. Apparently, once you set up a page on there, you can comment on just about anything without ever having to list who you are. Postings range from actual questions (i.e. the original intentions) to vicious and evil comments (“You’re so fat,” “No one likes you,” “Why are you and your friends so ugly?”). Yeah, it’s bad. Read More »

Let’s face it: We LOVE to gossip. We gossip about friends and we gossip about foes. Such idle talk allows us to convey information quickly, although not always accurately. This being said, it is no surprise that the website Juicy Campus has been increasing in popularity since it was founded on August 1, 2007.

When my friends first introduced me to Juicy Campus, I wrote it off as another place for people to share their college exploits online. But I quickly realized that this site was different; I actually knew the people that were being discussed! Friends, classmates, hookups—no one was free from the wrath of this critical group. Let’s just put it this way, if the “Burn Book” from Mean Girls was published online for all to see and comment on, I would imagine it would look similar to Juicy Campus.

The site was created by Mark Ivester, a Duke University Alum, with “the simple mission of enabling online anonymous free speech on college campuses.” (Editor’s Note: That’s a nice way to refer to sh*t talking!) There are currently 64 colleges listed on the site, including many prestigious institutions such as Harvard, UPenn, and Brown. The topics on the site range from the innocent (“Best Frat on Campus”) to the scandalous (“Sex with Professors”). Each post gets a rating ranging from 0% Juicy to 100% Juicy, so the juicier the gossip, the better the rating. Read More »