Disappointment

It's been an interesting week, and not the good kind of interesting. One thing that has been bothering me more than I can say is the new "anonymous" gossip forum for Trinity University. For those who don't know, It's a despicable place for people to go and anonymously post anything they want to. I will not link to it here. It's easy enough to find if you're desperate-- all I can say is that it's kind of amazing how uncomfortable in my own university this forum has left me. I know I need to get over it, as it seems much of the campus has (I don't actually know why, but this forum has simply not left the back of my mind since it was started), but I want to write one more "serious" post here on the blog before going back to more lighthearted topics.

First off, if a blog is supposed to be anonymous, it should remain anonymous. That includes the the users as well as the people users are posting about. Some people seem to be under the impression that because this website is like /b/ on 4chan, that makes cyberbullying okay. I don't really see how that works, but even if that somehow did make any sense, there is one key difference between TUGossip and 4chan: when you start talking about a specific person, everybody who is reading the posts knows exactly who the users are talking about. On larger online forums, there is a level of anonymity that any user can take advantage of-- not just the people writing the bullying posts, but the victims, as well. On TUGossip, we see the victims every day, and that takes away the anonymity that some people seem to think is so wonderful about this forum. All the users are anonymous, yes. But not the people discussed.

(Also, /b/ already exists. Why exactly do we need another one?)

Secondly, many users seem to love saying things like "wah wah wah" (verbatim) when someone is upset on the forum. I agree that you should not visit it if it will offend or hurt you (and chances are, if you are a decent person, it will)-- However, that doesn't mean that people don't hear about what goes on-- they do-- and there is really no way to avoid that.

I am not trying to control the internet, nor am I trying to control a group of college students. But I came to Trinity largely because of the atmosphere and the community in addition to the education, and I feel as though I have been slapped in the face and teleported back to middle school. There is no reason for some of the posts I have seen, except to simply target people and take cheap shots. I am simultaneously trying to figure out the reasoning behind it and explain just why, exactly, people feel the need to do this to other students. There are so many arguments for why "wimps" shouldn't visit the place, why it technically should be allowed-- in short, why this forum should be defended. "Because it can exist, it should exist" seems to be the most resounding response.


I see this mysterious, driving hunger that people seem to have for writing searingly malicious things towards specific people, and I don't understand: what is so wrong with compassion?

The world isn't a perfect place, as I am learning all the time, but I don't really see that as a justification for perpetuating hate. Most of the posts on the forum are harmful-- more than a couple of students have been seriously, genuinely hurt by them-- and for some strange reason, that isn't enough for anybody to stop defending the forum. Instead, it's the students' fault for not having a thicker skin that protects them from cyberbullying, thus justifying the original posts. But I have yet to find a reason for those.

Does there have to be a reason for everything? No. And apparently that answer is enough to justify simple cruelty. I can't argue with that. If that is someone's mindset, I can't change it. But I can be disappointed. I really am surprised at how incredibly disappointed this week has left me.

No, I don't expect the internet to be both intelligent and compassionate, but I guess I did expect something more along the lines of that from Trinity.