Gossip Addict

Most of you who read this blog know exactly what CollegeACB is. For others this is the first time you've even seen it mentioned. For the latter group let me explain. CollegeACB is a website dedicated to anonymous collegiate gossiping. It's the newest Juicy Campus. And above all else, it is completely and annoyingly addictive. Thankfully I have never had my name mentioned anywhere on that site but I've had friends who have been completely devastated by some horrific lies told about them on it. Last semester for some reason, CollegeACB took our campus by storm. At first the posts were semi-innocuous things like "Where are all the parties tonight?" or "Which frat has the hottest guys?" but then whole threads about people started appearing, "Jane Doe is such a whore/bitch/slut/toad." These posts were the most brutal. I had friends called horrible names and had such ridiculous but hurtful lies told about them. And despite all of the lies, we all got sucked in. A major conversation starter was "Did you see that thing on ACB last night?" It was the internet's version of crack. You knew it was bad and could only lead to pain, and you knew that you should stop going back to it but you just couldn't stop.

I would just like to go on the record here by saying that I have never posted anything bad about anyone on that site. I have posted on it but most of the time I was trying to defend my friends. Other times I just wanted to know if a certain party was worth going to. I will admit that I read the posts and the lies about people whom I have never (and probably will never) met. I was a gossip addict. The only thing that stopped my addiction to that site was the summer. I made a commitment to myself to stay off CollegeACB for the summer and focus on getting some quality Vitamin D (yay sunshine) and hanging out with friends. My ACB addiction released its hold on me but like every other addict, my struggle goes on. I sometimes slip up and go on (like I did last night) and read through the latest post. It isn't as big of a craze as it was last semester but it's still there. The struggle continues...