Crazy Confessions

It’s confession time
Over the past few months, students from colleges across the country have started confession pages on Facebook. The craze peaked last week. The page is started by one or more students (current or former) from that college. Administrators invite students to submit their ‘confessions’ through Google Docs or via a web form. This way students don’t reveal their identity. The administrators then put up the ‘confessions’ on the Facebook page. Students are then free to comment on it.

And the confessions are...
A majority of the confessions we saw are guys or girls (mostly guys) declaring their crushes (b.o.r.i.n.g!) Some confessions are tragicomic. A guy in IIT Madras described an incident when a girl asked him for his number. Taken aback, he tried to act confident and charming. “Just when I was telling her the first 5 digits of my mobile number. Immediately she said “no, no I was asking for your ROLL NO.” (sic)

There are other instances when students have declared that they are homosexual. Other confessions relate to study pressure. Many comments are supportive and encouraging.

The flip side
Because the confessions are anonymous, there are several sexist and abusive posts as well. As these pages grew in popularity, administrators have started screening confessions before putting them up. Provocative and abusive posts are either not put up or deleted if they create controversies.