Down With Juicy Campus
Attacking the worst web site ever
Hunter Patterson
3/4/09 | Opinion
I remember in Middle School there used to be these worn out yet brightly colored notebooks passed from student to student called Slam Books. Slam books were designed to act as anonymous ways to gossip and spread false and sometimes humorous rumors in a semi-public manner. The truth about these slam books was that they were really created and circulated by small groups of people who considered them selves the "cool" kids. The names that would occupy the lists (" Hottest/Ugliest Girl" "Hottest/Ugliest Guy") in the Slam Book were usually the same group of "cool" kids. Sometimes, these lists would get out of hand; someone would read that their best friend thinks they kiss boys in the bathroom during classes, and all sorts of middle-school hell would break loose.
They would cry, get upset and go to the main office to complain that someone was being mean about them via a Slam Book. When asked who was responsible for the Slam book, an "I saw (insert name) with the Devil" act worthy of a Broadway production of the Crucible would take place. Parents would be called to meet with the Teachers, Principals and counselor. There would be a sit down where everyone would deny involvement, only to eventually cave in the face of detention, coughing up the Slam Books.
As all things kids do for fun and a sense of purpose in their little pre-existential crisis lives, the Slam book fad faded into obscurity, only to come up in brief "Hey, remember when…?" conversations a few days before graduating from high school. I would like to think that we as a generation grew out of that style of gossip around the same time N'SYNC broke up and Harry Potter was only in his fourth year. How wrong I was.
When the piece of Internet trash that is Juicy Campus brought itself to GW as a Slam Book 2.0 my first reaction was to psshaww at the very notion of a website entirely devoted to the libel and gossipy put-down of others. However what I saw was something far more dangerous than a simple notebook. What was created in Juicy Campus was a website with the ability to destroy lives.
They would cry, get upset and go to the main office to complain that someone was being mean about them via a Slam Book. When asked who was responsible for the Slam book, an "I saw (insert name) with the Devil" act worthy of a Broadway production of the Crucible would take place. Parents would be called to meet with the Teachers, Principals and counselor. There would be a sit down where everyone would deny involvement, only to eventually cave in the face of detention, coughing up the Slam Books.
As all things kids do for fun and a sense of purpose in their little pre-existential crisis lives, the Slam book fad faded into obscurity, only to come up in brief "Hey, remember when…?" conversations a few days before graduating from high school. I would like to think that we as a generation grew out of that style of gossip around the same time N'SYNC broke up and Harry Potter was only in his fourth year. How wrong I was.
When the piece of Internet trash that is Juicy Campus brought itself to GW as a Slam Book 2.0 my first reaction was to psshaww at the very notion of a website entirely devoted to the libel and gossipy put-down of others. However what I saw was something far more dangerous than a simple notebook. What was created in Juicy Campus was a website with the ability to destroy lives.
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