by Aaron Butts
For the past few years, Capital has been suffering under the immense ignorance perpetuated on Twitter through anonymous Twitter accounts such as Tweets by Anon and Cap Burn Book.
For newer students who aren’t familiar, Tweets by Anon was a Twitter account that arose a few years ago as a way for Capital students to submit tweets anonymously via a website. These tweets varied in content, ranging from casual confessions to funny and inappropriate jokes that some might not want to have on their Twitter feeds. More notably, however, were the constant examples of cyber bullying that would be featured on the page.
Under the mask of anonymity, Capital students could convey whatever mean-spirited thought they never had the balls to say in person. This led Columbus’ 10TV to cover Capital’s epidemic of cyber bullying in September of 2011, and led the university’s administration to respond. All of this went against what the creators claimed to have intended the site for. But regardless of what idealistic first amendment purposes they had intended, it was abused as many freedoms often are.
Now, two years after the fall of Tweets by Anon, the meanness and pettiness of Tweets by Anon has been resurrected in the form of the Cap Burn Book. This recent reincarnation of Tweets by Anon simply takes everything that gave Capital a bad reputation two years ago and puts it in the same place with a less attractive premise.
With the focus of the Capital community on this idea of #capfam and unity, it is appalling that this kind of behavior was ever possible. Critics within Capital’s walls jokingly refer to the university as “Capital High School” and never has this label been more true than now.
While high school students around the country cannot wait to escape the immaturity that they experience every day with their immature adolescent peers, little do they know that young adulthood holds the same level of immaturity.
This isn’t to say that all of Capital students on Twitter are scumbags. Another recent creation was “Pick Someone Up” (@PickSomeoneUp) which is dedicated expressly towards providing positive reinforcement to its followers. It’s because of accounts like these that redeem Capital and show the success of the idea of #capfam.
Not just that, but every time a sports team is congratulated, every time someone tweets in support of a philanthropy on campus, or every time that students or alumni express the joy that they have in sharing the Capital experience, the truer reality of the soul of Capital is exposed. It’s too small of a campus to allow hatred and division a place to reside. It’s time for Capital students to realize that they are not children anymore and have to act like adults. In the real world immaturity isn’t found so amusing.
by abutts@capital.edu
