You can't deny it. You've logged into juicycampus.com too. It's not just my guilty pleasure. Or, scratch that, was my guilty pleasure. Somehow inbetween visits to the site, I've found it shut down with only this blog post to reason behind it. While I find the excuse of the 'economic downturn' to be quite the cop-out excuse given all the criticism that the site has gotten over the years, the most interesting part about all of this is the now automatic redirection of the URL to another anonymous college gossip site: Collegeacb.com. Much like what Lily Bass said in the most recent episode of Gossip Girl, "You can shut it down with 100 new sites to open in it's place." So true Lily, so true.
This all brings me to the question of what is with our fixation on anonymous gossip? Why can we all be bitchy behind best friends and frienemies backs, but not to their faces. What kind of redemption do we get seeing posts about so-and-so's life on a public board, and how does the passive-aggressive anonymity make it all seemingly okay? We don't hesitate to post our true feelings about someone or something in an instant message, blog, Facebook status message, a quote in your "About Me" - but avoid actual confrontation. But just as our lives are convenienced more by technology (thanks for keeping in contact with me via Facebook, middle school friends), do they decline in quality? I'm not condoning face-to-face bitchfights, but maybe it's due time to take the hand off of the mouse, and have a few, don't you think?
-M
