A new confession page has launched on Facebook for George Brown students, giving them an anonymous outlet
Illustration Sam Bullis
These are just two examples of messages on the newly launched “GBC Confessions” Facebook page, where numerous laughable, sweet, warm, angry, resentful and sorrowful messages have been posted.The page was started in January, and since then has accumulated 424 likes and 89 messages as of Feb 24.According to the Facebook messages and email interviews with the page’s administrator, who declined to disclose her name but let us called her “A”., she is a woman studying in the school of computer and information technology program at GBC.
The GBC Confessions page is run exclusively by her. In an email, she said that “I felt like GBC students were not connected. I wanted to create a space where everyone could connect in a place where you could confess everything and anything you wanted.”
In fact, the confession page is not a new concept. It has become a trend among schools and universities in North America since 2013, as well as in Europe and Asia.
All the posts are anonymous, and a lot of social networking websites have been set up a similar page for their users—Facebook is one of them.
However, regarding the anonymous nature of posts, the confession messages are often sexual in nature and some colleges and universities have banned such pages to avoid harassment of students and staff.
On this argument, A said that her policy is not to post things that go against people’s moral ethics.
“I read all the posts before they are posted,” wrote A. “I make sure that anything I post won’t hurt another person, and if I find something like this I immediately delete it.”
She admitted that some people did say rude things but most of the confessions were positive, like the ones that are currently on the page.
The confessions page was established with the name of the college, but wasn’t registered by the college and they have no connection to one another.
“They don’t need to (register the page). We don’t really care about it. A lot of social media forums have those similar pages, so we don’t pay special attention to it,” said Brian Stock, director of communications at GBC.
Stock said it is a good thing for students to express their opinions, but they don’t track this page as long as GBC receives no complaints.
To see other posts visit the GBC confessions page on Facebook.
