At a smaller school, like Fairfield, gossip tends to spread quickly among the student body. Now, with social media such as Twitter, that spread is not only instantaneous, but has the potential to exist forever. Gone are the days of gossip “blowing over,” as now it can resurface at anytime with the click of a button.
Over the winter break, three Fairfield students decided to create the Twitter account FU Hookups. Fellow students would send them two names of people they knew had “hooked up,” and the creators would post the two names for their followers and the rest of the Twitterverse to see.
Dr. Michael Serazio is an assistant professor in communication who studies how new technology like Twitter changes culture and society. In regards to this particular account, Serazio said it is most simply a modern form of gossip.
“Gossip is not a new thing,” he said. However, the difference with gossip now is “the ability to broadcast that gossip to a wider audience,” with the potential to be permanent.
“What this Twitter account is a part of,” he said, is “a larger pattern of young people’s lives being documented, semi-permanently, online.”
One of the creators, who wishes to remain anonymous, said the idea just came to him over break, and he thought that “it would be funny and amusing and people would enjoy it.”
Sophomore Katie Mitateck found out about the account from a friend, and said: “It’s very popular. Everybody checks it to see if people they know are on there.” She added that she thought the account was amusing and believed that people didn’t “take it really seriously. It’s just something to laugh about.”
She added, “I think it’s funny when you see people you know on [the account] but if it was you, you might feel differently.” In turn, if she saw her name in a post, she said she would “probably be embarrassed.”
Senior Ali Juliano felt similarly, saying that the account was “pretty hilarious” and that it was “definitely funny that someone posts all the hookups that go on at Fairfield.” She added that the account is “probably embarrassing for some people but if you’re going to [hook up], you can’t be embarrassed after the fact.”
Like gossip that spreads through word of mouth, online gossip can potentially lead to more serious consequences.
On a smaller scale, gossip-based accounts have sparked concern at high schools across the country. The New York Post reported last week that a “Gossip Girl”- like account at Forest Hills High School in Queens had been tweeting insults and revealing personal information like which students had been having sex.
Another account of this kind was brought to the attention of the media last week in Knoxville, Tenn. According to Laura Halm, who wrote an article titled “Parents worried about anonymous bully on Twitter targeting Bearden High School students,” said “malicious, hurtful tweets are being tweeted by an account called ‘Knoxville Gossip Girl.’”
However, the creators of FU Hookups said they intend to do no harm. “If anyone gets offended and asks us to take a certain post down, we always do,” they said.
Students’ reactions to these particular tweets may vary. Serazio said they could find it “embarrassing or amusing, terrible or not that serious,” but it all “depends on the individual.”
“Being a smaller school, this might be more powerful, because more students know each other,” said Serazio. This type of social media, he said, also holds the potential to be “problematic” at a smaller school.
Sophomore Matthew Dunn said that he did not have a Twitter account but heard about FU Hookups through friends. As a non-Twitter user, he said that he “wouldn’t mind” if someone posted about him.
“It’s funny,” said Harrison Pereyra ‘16, “but it seems like most people send in fake ones about their friends,” to “try to be funny and embarrass them.” He said that a lot of the tweets were about the same people, and he knew of one post that was untrue.
If he was posted about truthfully, however, Pereyra said how he felt would depend on whom he hooked up with. “I would still feel a little embarrassed either way,” he said, as he felt that it would be an invasion of privacy.
Although FU Hookups currently has only 289 followers and 117 tweets, gossip has allowed its name to spread and only time will tell if students’ reactions will change toward this new form of gossip.
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