If you have yet to be exposed to Juicycampus.com, there is a part of me that wishes I were you. Juicy Campus is a website that provides a open forum for college students all around to country to write so-called "gossip" about their peers, their school or anything they so desire. When I first heard about this website, I immediately went and checked it out. I was extremely appalled and could not stop thinking about what was running through the creator's mind when he stirred up this "brilliant" idea. In fact, I hope that the content found on this website would appall any viewer.
Although Juicy Campus provides an open forum for students to practice their right to free speech, the website has gotten out of control. I feel it is safe to say the goal of this forum was not to provide educational or helpful information to students, but rather to provide every day gossip and an outlet for an easily accessible rumor mill. The degrading nature of this website is nothing short of disturbing and completely ridiculous. It allows for students to anonymously "call out" others. Posts range from being highly offensive to plain rude - and sometimes can lead to ruining an individual's reputation on campus or otherwise. Juicy Campus' creator stated in an interview that he hoped that if students were upset by something written on the website by someone else, then they would feel compelled to write back and so forth from there. Does he not understand that that only makes it 10 times worse?
I dislike this website to such a high degree, that I don't even feel it is necessary or appropriate to mention examples of posts on this website - hopefully my review provides enough insight. This "open forum" should not be the sort of thing that consumes a college student's life. When did the focus shift from education and occasional partying to degrading and offending as many students and organizations as possible? Every person who reads it on a regular basis, states that it is just "pure entertainment"... but how would they feel if their name was posted?
My guess is they wouldn't think it was "pure entertainment" anymore.
No comments:
Post a Comment