Students across California have started a trend of confessing their secrets and thoughts to separate pages representing their schools on Facebook.
These pages are developed so students can anonymously confess things about their school, friends, life and other subjects.
Schools like Cal State Long Beach and Cal State Dominguez Hills as well as Cerritos College have pages like these.
Students are able to go to a service called Survey Monkey where they type in the confession and the moderator will sort through them and post them on the page.
According to Cerritos Falcons Confessions’s page moderator, who for the sake of the page is remaining anonymous, he or she is working with other admins to create a page where “The focus is helping give the students a place to vent.”
The moderator went on to say that “Confessions can be and are bogus at times due to immature students, but there are real genuine concerns students have.”
While the identity of who posts what on the page is not seen, the comments and likes are still visible to anyone who views the page.
The creator of the Cerritos College page has created it after seeing CSULB’s page.
The page for CSULB has been around for months, and according to its current page it says it was founded on Jan. 23, 2013.
English major and Associated Students of Cerritos College senator Vanessa Vega has viewed the page and has even left some comments which she said were only there to defend ASCC.
“I have defended ASCC three or four times when people say (members of ASCC) make this place a high school, we make poor choices, we don’t focus on the right things.”
She feels that the page has diverted from its original intended use of being a place for students to vent, and now is “getting out of hand” and is a place that students can possibly create harm to others.
“What it’s turned into is a ‘rage page,’ and because it is anonymous people use that as opportunities of bashing someone or something and it is not constructive. It is really people saying mean things without having to face consequences.”
Being a senator, Vega feels that students who do have issues with the ASCC or other parts of campus and post those issues on the site are more than welcome to go to the senate meetings and speak at the public forum.
Agreeing with Vega is fellow ASCC member, Matt Hamilton, who said that senate is currently working on ways to make the school get healthier food options, which was one of the complaints seen on the Facebook page.
This change however, according to Hamilton isn’t exactly a direct result of the posts but it just shows how much of an issue it is.
Hamilton has been active on the Facebook page, leaving comments just like Vega, saying he is here to help students and show that ASCC members want to help.
“I think a lot of people on the page have valid concerns, so being a member of the senate and being involved with the student body. I feel like I am in a position where I can say ‘Hey look, we hear these concerns and we are doing everything we can to make sure (Cerritos College) is a better place'”
Graphic design major Fernanda Vazquez feels that the Cerritos College page can cause harm to students because of the comments made.
“I don’t really approve of it..people are mean. What if they put…negative stuff and add to the whole concept of bullying,” she said.
Posts on the page don’t stop at ASCC complaints, they span to subjects like love and relationships, and how students feel about professors or other parts of campus.
Some students even compare the page to that of CSULB’s page which currently is promoting a website where it can join up with other colleges so students can post their confessions there.
The CSULB page hasn’t had any posts since April 2, when it released the new website on a Facebook post.
As for the future of the Cerritos College page, Vega thinks doesn’t look to bright.
“It can be dangerous, I feel like this could turn into a very dark thing, because it allows for bullying because they do point certain people out.”
