Social media addiction has swept through most of us here at Wittenberg, and by now most of us have seen, heard about, or been featured on the two major Twitter accounts on campus: @WittConfessions and @WittCrushes. These accounts take anonymous submissions via Ask.Fm and turn them into anonymous tweets. Some are hilarious, some are sad, and most are downright nasty.
On Oct. 11, @WittConfessions tweeted: “To [sic] many girls here at Witt think they are top class.. Just stop no one likes you stuck up bitches we actually make fun of all of you!!” We see here a gorgeous display of terrible grammar and a horrible slander against the women of Wittenberg, but this is simply the beginning of some of the things posted on the Twitter handles. Everything including pregnancy scares, sexual escapades, shout-outs to the CDR, and people questioning the sexuality of various students, something to suit everyone’s gossip needs can be found between the two accounts. Some are even pleasant thank you’s and compliments to students, faculty, and staff.
Who submits these you ask? Who posts them? Is there any discretion? Many people have their theories, from freshman girls of Tower, to sophomore girls of Firestine, and none of the comments about the Twitter pages are good. I’ve even been featured as a Witt Crush, and I was not amused by the language that someone would use about me. Some people believe the submitters are the people that have named themselves, trying to boost themselves on social media to be seen. Some of the comments are just downright disgusting, like “oh you’re a gnome? Let me give you dome” from WittCrushes or “Bitch don’t fuck with me, I have so much dirt on you and I will end your career here” from WittConfessions. It seems that whatever is submitted to Ask.Fm is posted to Twitter, but the good humor seems to be lost in a sea of angry, mean, and downright hateful comments that the anonymity of Ask.Fm seems to allow people to think is okay.
We’ve had two major incidents of racism and hatred on campus in the last six months. While we put racial issues in a league of hatred of its own, it is still hatred. We try to make a community of inclusivity and acceptance, and while we can all agree that you can’t make everyone love everyone, it seems totally against the morals we hold dear at Wittenberg to slander someone on an anonymous social media site. We don’t all have to try to be the best, most proper people in the world all of the time, but we are still a community that must live, learn, study, and grow together through our four years here, and even after as alumni, like the ones we saw this weekend at homecoming.
Next time you think you want to submit to those Twitter accounts, think about what you’re saying. Even if it’s sexual in nature and you think it’s a compliment, it may really hurt or offend someone. Not everyone wants to hear about how you want to take them behind their dorm. It doesn’t sound like my idea of a good time.
