As a newspaper, the Maroon is a powerful defender of the First Amendment. We believe, as journalists, that freedom of expression is a fundamental human right, and it’s important for people to have an outlet for their opinions and beliefs.
One such venue for freedom of expression is JuicyCampus. While there’s validity to the argument that what’s said on the site is no worse than what people on this campus say in real life, the publication of these words in an open forum is much more harmful than mere word of mouth.
If the statements written on JuicyCampus were instead permanently painted onto a public wall on university grounds, the reactions to them would probably be a lot stronger. But just because these words are digital instead of physical doesn’t make them any less real.
The question is not if we as students are allowed to participate in the JuicyCampus phenomenon. On an open forum, there is nothing to stop us from posting whatever we please. The real question is if we should participate. After all, just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.
The legal issues at hand are important. While the First Amendment does guarantee freedom of expression, posting defamatory and untrue statements that cause harm is technically libel and grounds for legal action. The site’s anonymity, however, hampers the legal process.
The ethical matters are also important. The site represents all the hateful things university students say about each other in digital form. There, in black and white, you can discover what your peers are saying about you and yours — from your sexual reputation to your general physical appearance — whether what’s said is true or not.
We are all adults here, and we should present ourselves with more maturity and class than the aura JuicyCampus lends to its supported universities. The things Loyola students have written about each other are incredibly hateful and detrimental to campus unity. By having an online burn book where we can anonymously label someone a slut or a drug addict, we are coming across little better than petty children slinging mud at each other out of spite and boredom.
Loyola’s mission as a Jesuit university is to help students “lead meaningful lives with and for others” and “to pursue truth, wisdom and virtue.” Spreading malicious gossip certainly doesn’t fall under that umbrella.
Though it might amuse you for a while or gratify your anger towards someone to smear their name, at the end of the day, to paraphrase “Mean Girls,” calling somebody fat won’t make you any skinnier, calling someone stupid won’t make you any smarter and ruining someone’s life won’t make you any happier. Why waste your time on a futile attempt to raise your own self-esteem by hurting someone else?
Furthermore, if you are only brave enough to say these awful things about your friends and classmates under the cloak of anonymity, should you really be saying them at all?
