Facebook Chaos

Think before you speak

By Vianney Casas

“You are nothing until you are talked about.” The same 8 horrid words appeared in a new gossip page about Southwest High School created about 5 days ago.

Who isn’t familiar with Facebook? Besides being used to communicate with friends all around the world, it is also known for being used as a bullying tool and as a place where you’ll find out the newest gossip about relationships, friendships and pretty much anyone’s life. However, it was never imagined that Facebook would ever be used by a Raider to talk bad about dozens of students in SOH. Never in my two years in Southwest High had something as detestable as this happened, and it didn’t just strike me, it struck many Raiders who were confused, dissapointed, and angry.

It all started this past weekend. For weeks, Facebook pages about SOH had been created. Pages about the prettiest girls at school, the cutest guys, best couples and best friends, but none of these pages was like the one created on Saturday. Everything was all right, everyone was OK with the new pages, they did not hurt anyone at all, but everything went downhill when a page named “Soh blab” was created anonymously. “You are no one until you’re talked about” it said on its biography. The page had albums with nice categories such as “The real pretty girls”, (“Soh bonitas” had a category with “pretty girls”, and this Soh blab supposedly had the real ones) “handsome guys”, but it also had horrible categories including “ugly people”, “backstabbers”, and others I won’t mention for the use of language. Besides those two categories (pretty girls and handsome boys) the page bascially talked trash about tons of people and about rumors that had been popular here at SOH. When I say tons of people in SOH I mean it talked about people from 9th to 12th grade. Suddenly the page started adding people, people it had talked about. This caused a big uproar among Raiders. People got their feelings hurt, why wouldn’t they? The page was describing them with such hideous words that it would be hard to imagine someone not feeling like they had been punched in the stomach when seeing their picture and under it a paragraph.

The Monday following that weekend was even worse. Everyone at school was talking about it. You would walk into a class and find groups of students talking about it. Between classes you would hear people walking and talking about it. While in lunch, people shared their opinions about the new Facebook page, about “Soh blab”. Suspicion and accusations among students couldn’t be missing of course. Raiders looked at eachother in suspicion and asked each other about who could possibly be this person who was hiding behind a computer screen and writing about them. Obviously, false accusations were made. People were falsely accused and without knowing, pointed fingers (and I say this because of my own experience) and blamed anyone who crossed their mind. “Who do you think it was?” was the most heard question that day, as students tried to think for an answer and what they would do if they ever found out.

On Tuesday, the turmoil had declined a little, but the page wasn’t forgotten. People were still talking about it and wondering who was that heartless person. Fortunately it all ended today. The page was erased. It caught people by surprise since the person running the page seemed not to care what anyone else thought and that everyone was trying to find out who he/she was. I asked people if they knew something about this and the possible reason, and somenone told me someone had told the principal about this page. Now that the principal was involved, everyone’s conclusion was that the creator of “Soh blab” got scared and deleted the page not wanting any problems. If he/she didn’t want any problems, why did he/she create the page in the first place is a question I and I’m sure many other Raiders have in their minds. The page might have been deleted, but this isn’t and will never be completely over. People’s feelings are still hurt, the identity of this person is still trying to be discovered, and this experience, believe me, will never be forgotten no matter if you weren’t talked about. The only thing we can all hope is that whoever did this is brought out to light, although no punishment given, or apology can erase what he/she did to many Raiders. Some may have shown no care for the words of this person, however this doesn’t mean that deep down the heart was lightly punched.

That’s why Raiders my best advice has always been “Think before you act/speak” Think beforehand about the consequences. Im sure this person didn’t and look at what he/she caused. No one has the right to talk about anyone. No one has the right to pretend they can get into someone’s mind. Everyone has their own opinion, their own story, and no one has the right to alter it or tell it their way. Raiders speak for yourselves, never talk about anyone else because it will come back to you when you least expect it.