JuicyCampus – A Disgusting Website
I haven’t wanted to write about this… Mostly because I’m appalled by what I’ve seen. But I feel compelled to because it’s going to become a huge issue among college campuses.
If you’ve not heard of JuicyCampus, you probably will sometime in next few months.
It’s a social networking site where people can anonymously post anything about anyone at their college… Basically, it’s an easy way for anyone to start gossip and spread rumors. And it’s disgusting. Students are calling out other students by name and talking about all kinds of vulgar things. It’s unbelievable.
The question is… Will it last? Will people continually come back to this site to check for new gossip? I see absolutely nothing meaningful coming from this site. Unfortunately our generation is already obsessed with pop culture (which is pretty meaningless.) But now you don’t have to be a celebrity to have a whole bunch of rumors spread about you…
Maybe it won’t last – Maybe people will realize that the site only functions when people are mean… And that gets old after what? 3 minutes?
Or maybe this is just the beginning - What about a JuicyWork.com? Will there ever be a site where you can spread rumors about coworkers? Or will there someday be a YouTube site of violent and disturbing videos? Could this be the beginning of a wave of anti-social media?
Do me a quick favor… In your head, answer this question: If you were invisible for a day, what would you do?
…I’ll wait for an answer…
So tell me: Would you do something good or bad? (Don’t feel bad if it was something negative… It probably was for most people.)
See, JuicyCampus is based off of the principal know as Deindividuation. According to Wikipedia, deindividuation is a state of lowered self-awareness, a temporary loss of personal identity resulting from becoming part of a group, such as an army or a mob, but it can also occur in situations wherein people feel anonymous. It can have very destructive effects, sometimes making people more likely to commit a crime (Diener, 1976), or leading policemen to use excessive force in an arrest.
When you’re online and anonymous, it’s easy to loose your personal identity and behave in a way that goes against your personal values. Probably because you see no potential repercussions for your actions. It’s human nature. And unfortunately, I don’t see this changing anytime soon…
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5 Responses
No knowledge of the niche I was going into.I've detailed the step-by-step process I used to launch this business in this free report, hoping that it will help give you new ideas.
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NPR has a great show on this. I’m so glad I missed this era in college.
Allie – Thanks for the link. I’m glad that we missed this whole era as well… Hopefully.
After Facebook, LinkedIn came. Hopefully that pattern doesn’t follow with this website.
I saw this on the news a couple months ago. I agree it’s disturbing, and if you look at the larger picture, it’s frustrating that our laws aren’t keeping up with web 2.0. Great post!
Perhaps this is what Eric Schmidt of Google had in mind when he called the Internet a ‘cesspool’ of false information. It only underlines the importance of trusted brands.
this site is kind of scary, but I actually think it will end up lasting. People think the internet gives them the power to do what they want anonymously, and this site feeds into that.