The Web site we all love to hate and hate that we love, is no more.
Now, we can see that the recession that is affecting many different facets of our economy has even taken its toll on the World Wide Web, as the lack of advertising revenue has forced JuicyCampus to shut down it’s cyberspace and give up the right to air everyone’s dirty laundry.
JuicyCampus was created in a dorm room that probably looks a lot like ours, by a guy who probably looks a look like us, except maybe a little more desperate and a little less cool, depending on who you are.
It was a Web site that had immense potential to aid college students in discussing harmless but helpful topics like: what classes to take, what professors to avoid, what events to attend on campus, and even the best beach houses for parties. However, the Web site took a turn for the worst and ended up being a Web site dedicated to airing petty gossip and rumors strictly about people.
On the message board, one could find entire ‘topics’ dedicated to specific people and others entitled ‘hottest sports team,’ ‘undercover cuties,’ ‘fantasy dates’ and ‘people who should come out of the closet.’ Although it was difficult to not laugh out loud at some of the comments, others led to the ruined reputations and destroyed relationships of our fellow classmates, which is something we should never find funny.
The information we read on the Web site sparked many conversations at the roundtables in Barone and although our conversations are a little less juicy these days, I’d rather talk about the housing lottery than the gossip we read about what ‘so and so’ did and with who at the townhouses last Friday night.
Unfortunately, the death of JuicyCampus, does not lead to the death of gossip on college campuses or online gossip for that matter. Today, when a gossip hunter signs onto JuicyCampus, they are immediately redirected to Campusabc.com, a new and upcoming replacement. It’s quickly gaining momentum and seems to be the next outlet of college gossip.
In the lag period, however, the old fashioned ‘grapevine’ has the chance to regain its power once more and we have the chance to hold onto what little bit of privacy and dignity we can muster up on a Friday night.
Part of college is making crazy decisions, careless mistakes and being able to chalk them up to an embarrassing memory you’ll have forever or not depending on how good the jungle juice was. The decisions we make should be ours, not that of JuicyCampus. We should all have the ability to jump without looking, learn from our mistakes and grow from our experiences, without having to fear if everything we do or say will be known by everyone at school because of people posting gossip on a Web site that thrived on immaturity and cowardliness.
For now, let’s take this chance and rise above the high school drama, stop acting like the cast of ‘Gossip Girl’ and get to truly get to know your classmates without their JuicyCampus counterpart.
And hey, if all that doesn’t matter to you, invite the ‘List ‘Em’ guy out this weekend and give him something to do with all his free time.
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