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Formspring.com was originally made as a website where people could post anonymous questions on a person’s page for them to answer.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.

Surprisingly to me, though, thousands of people use this site on a regular basis, even linking to it from their various AIM/Facebook/Twitter messages. And I just don’t get it; they’re basically just begging for people to say horrible and hurtful things about them.

Why!?

Why would people willingly sign up for a site on which they will inevitably receive comments that they don’t want to hear and that will probably make them miserable?  Why would they actively sign up for a service that allows people to say hurtful things about them in the comfortable anonymity the site provides?  Students nationwide were up in arms when Juicy Campus was created, arguing that it was gossip and slander, but now they are out there setting up a similar platform for themselves?!

Recently, a young high school girl in Long Island committed suicide, and friends and family say that the comments on her Formspring were partly to blame for her death. Now, of course, I’m not saying that her Formspring alone made her end her life, because there are many factors that push a person to that point, but  this is a very real example of how hurtful Formspring can be for someone. And for what? What is the point of allowing people to anonymously comment on you and your life? Why do you care what someone has to say unless they can man up and say it to your face?

I’m not saying that everyone’s Formspring is full of bad comments and questions, but plenty of them are, and it’s completely unnecessary. Maybe it’s just me, but I just can’t really see the positive side of this site.

What do you guys think? Do you use Formspring? Would you?

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.

And because everything posted on Juicy Campus is anonymous, people have no censor when it comes to describing how they truly feel about someone. As a result, degrading, racist, homophobic, and downright hurtful remarks are prevalent throughout the site.

As guilty as I feel reading through the posts, I often find myself deciding to read “just one more.” I mean, who doesn’t want to know if she is considered the hottest girl on campus? But sometimes this curiosity gets people into trouble, as was the case here when a junior at Baylor University found her name not under “Hottest Girl,” but rather under “Biggest Slut.”

The embarrassment doesn’t end here. A couple of my own friends have been named on the site (yes, first and last name) saying they are “easy” or “ugly” when I know that it is simply not true. Furthermore, I have encountered posts where people comment on another person’s genitals (one of which referred to a guy that I had been seeing—kind of sucked) or even post naked pictures of an ex in retaliation. I don’t know about you, but I would be mortified.

The site takes no responsibility for the information posted, claiming that the authors are the ones responsible. In fact, as shown on CNN, people who have been hurt by the website have no way to fight back. Kind of hard to place the blame on Mr. Anonymous, wouldn’t you agree?

So we are left with one question: Is Juicy Campus just a fun place where college students can dish out the dirt on their friends and classmates, or has it become a way for people to tarnish the reputation of others with no repercussions?

[Photo courtesy of NYTimes.com]