Honestly, ESU?

BY KATIE JOHNSTONE
SC Staff Writer

 
There’s a hot new trend creeping its way through cyber-space and has been hosted at East Stroudsburg University. This new virus to infest is in the form of a Facebook page called “Esu Honesty Hour.”

The page was created on March 31 and has 304 Facebook friends.

The profile picture shows ESU’s mascot, Burgy, and is accessible as long as users are connected to the page. To submit a comment, question, or so it seems anything in your wildest of dreams, the user may post to the page anonymously by filling out a comment box through a surveymonkey link.

The comments along the page vary. Some posts are general and light-hearted, while others seem to be written by some bitter, cowardly subjects. The content goes anywhere from complaining about someone (mostly other students or groups) to one’s graphic, sexual desires.  Really, ESU?

Unfortunately, our campus isn’t the first (and most certainly) not the last to fall victim to the suffocating yet comfortable idea of baring no face to the words we speak.

I’ve seen a few universities and colleges get sucked into this shameful vortex of spineless groaning. Pratt Institute, an art school in Brooklyn, took a stand against nameless words harshly disrupting an otherwise content campus.  For weeks, I saw friends of mine complain via Facebook about the page. The comments were getting worse, more specific, and actually revolting.  So they put a stop to it. They created another account, still anonymous, that instead took compliments instead of the other garbage. Way to go Pratt, now ESU, what are we doing?

I think we should take a page out of that book. Let’s get real. Here we are a bunch of twenty-something’s and hiding behind a computer to vent our teenage thoughts. We’re really setting a great example for future generations here.  It’s scary to think that this generation; the next ones to hit the working world and reproduce are acting like a hot mess.

We need to get our acts together and grow up. By feeding into pages like “Esu Honesty Hour”, we are slowly, one more campus at a time, making the world a worse place then it is to begin with. My recommendation for those who need to gripe about someone and can’t muster enough confidence for a real conversation is to purchase a journal and have at it.  As an unknown author once said, “Nobody really cares if you’re miserable, so you might as well be happy.”

Email Katie at:
kjohnstone13@gmail.com