Browse through the confession pages on Facebook of different localities in the city and you will find both compliments and barbs. While adjectives like hottie, sexy and adorable are used indiscriminately to woo or in the words of the youth ‘confess’ a crush, mocking and hate laden posts are also increasingly common.
Whether it’s targeting a couple for their height difference or spewing venom against a senior citizen for not allowing a group of kids to play, these comments are meant to be taken lightly according to the youth who post them.
What are confession pages?
The trend of confession pages initially gained popularity abroad and was limited to educational institutes, where students would write about their crushes, grudges, pet peeves and spew venom on someone they could not get along with or disliked. This then went on to extend to area specific pages.
If you look up Facebook, you are likely to find a confession page dedicated to your area, and while the comments posted on these pages may seem frivolous, many of them amount to verbal assault and bullying. And while the youth consider it to be harmless fun, not everyone thinks so. As in the case of a Class 10 student who says, “I liked the page because I had heard about it from my friends and was curious to see if anything negative was being said about me.”
Confession concern
Psychologist Mansi Hasan says, “While the motivation of these groups is to express opinions freely and create a friendly group for discussions, the flipside is that some children at times become the center of a joke or verbal bullying.
These posts also at times become the source of expressing anger and getting back at others. The children are at an impressionable age so when they are targeted it can lead to emotional concerns, interpersonal conflict, anger and negative self-image. It would be good if these pages can be moderated by a person who may be able to overlook the content before it leads to a detrimental outcome.”
Nothing sacred about it
Father Nigel Barrett, administrative Coordinator at Catholic Communication Centre in Mumbai, says, “The Church is very concerned about the way the term confessions is being misused on these pages. It belittles the term. For us confession is a process of spiritual transformation, which helps a person grow as a human being.
It’s not about vendetta and getting backing at someone. In most cases, the youth do not realise the seriousness of the matter and that by targeting people on these pages it amounts to cyberbullying, which is a serious crime. Using networking sites to bond with each other is okay but misusing it and picking on someone wearing a cloak of anonymity only proves you don’t have the courage to say what you feel face to face.”
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