“Hey UMA did you miss me? Well, I sure missed you.” – Gossip Girl
In recent years, anonymous cadets from UMA have formed an odd obsession with setting up accounts to spread gossip about other cadets. Last year’s accounts were dealt with in various ways, such as taking down the accounts entirely and also dealing with the anonymous account managers themselves. Recently more accounts have been emerging, all discreetly competing with each other for the viewers’ attention.
Utah State Legislature says that “Cyber-bullying” means using the Internet, a cell phone, or another device to send or post text, video, or an image with the intent or knowledge, or with reckless disregard, that the text, video, or image will hurt, embarrass, or threaten an individual, regardless of whether the individual directed, consented to, or acquiesced in the conduct, or voluntarily accessed the electronic communication.”.
One question that comes to mind about these gossip pages is why Instagram and not any other social media platforms? There can be a couple of possible explanations, such as popularity. According to the Pew Research Center, Instagram is one of the top four most popular social media apps among teens. This could also be because of how easy it is to find mutuals on Instagram. Chances are, if you go to UMA, you have been recommended one of these pages.
These anonymous accounts could be too busy begging for attention from their audience or maybe they might just be completely apathetic to those they have posted. However, this does not change the fact that cyberbullying does affect those who are posted. The National Institutes of Health says “Adolescents who are targeted via cyberbullying report increased depressive affect, anxiety, loneliness, suicidal behavior, and somatic symptoms.” I interviewed Amaya Brown who was featured on one of these pages on how her life was impacted after the bullying. She said,” I was pretty anxiety-prone, and eventually the cyberbullying transitioned to in real life.”
The Instagram pages usually use UMA’s logo as a profile picture no matter how incriminating that is, and the pages tend to use some sort of UMA word mix as the username. These pages also give their audience directions on how to submit gossip to the page in the description. Most of the time these pages follow UMA students and sometimes even follow random celebrities. As for the content of these pages, they all generally share the main idea of harsh gossip, but they do differ in the formats they use to post the gossip. A lot of the gossip submitted to these pages shares many characteristics. The posts are borderline illiterate, and are not based in fact but rather in emotional, personal opinions.They are usually overly aggressive. The format of these pages do vary through format. Some pages post direct screenshots from conversations, and some post pictures of the victim with the gossip and/or negative comments in the caption.
This year’s gossip accounts don’t differ a lot from last year’s. Most of them seem to be attempted replicas of one another. The only recognizable difference seems to be the upload dates. Similar to last year’s pages, this year’s pages are attempting to recreate Gossip Girl.
The anonymity of those running the accounts creates a tricky situation, not only because of how difficult it is to stop cyberbullying, but also the “moral dilemma” for lack of a better term it causes. Obviously these students are still guilty of cyberbullying for starting the account in the first place. However, what would be the punishment for someone who didn’t bully someone, but instead created a space where the bullying can take place? It also makes it harder to find everyone who participated in the bullying, because they are also anonymous. Instead of one anonymous manager, everyone who contributed to a post is guilty of cyberbullying.
One of the most concerning parts is seeing one of your friends participating there. After questioning some of my mutual friends about why they are following these accounts, there are roughly three reasons that students follow these accounts. Students follow whoever is associated with the school, following as “bit,” and following for the main purpose to consume others’ gossip. Even if you are following the accounts for nonmalicious reasons, you are still contributing. Amaya Brown put it best,” You gonna affect people no matter what, no matter what outcome you want.”
There are a couple of ways to handle these situations. Immediately report these pages to the UMA administration. This happened recently, and resulted in the Instagram account being taken down. It is also recommended that you talk with a counselor or Mr. Wendel. If you or someone you know is affected by cyberbullying, go to stopbullying.gov for help.
XOXO-Gossip girl
