Gunn Confessions has been trending and popular around Gunn ever since early March. However, the Facebook page clearly has many flaws which can affect others more than students would like to believe. The anonymous way of speaking on such a big platform can be a gateway for students to talk falsely about other students and make rude and hateful remarks about a person online without having to deal with the consequences. Although the account does have moderators, they may miss the confessions which can cause these situations to occur.

Furthermore, while comments on certain people being attractive is, in a way, a compliment, such comments can have a major impact on other readers. Someone’s looks are, most of the time, not under the person’s control and many students may feel the need to compare themself to someone who is said to be attractive. This situation is a slippery slope that has people thinking they are not good enough or pretty enough, which is far from the truth. If someone is never mentioned on the page at all and sees other people getting confessions on how attractive they are, this can make that person sad that they are not being talked about more, especially if they are talked down upon at school. On the other hand, students who are overly talked about may feel uncomfortable being talked about on a such a large platform.

Some confessions are also not appropriate for a school setting and could be potentially describing illegal activities. Examples of these include peeing on the second floor on the N-building, talking of male ejaculation in soap dispensers and discussing what part of the female body is the most attractive. This speech is clearly inappropriate for school and should not be endorsed on the internet. Instead, the account moderators should be more stringent about what is allowed on the page in order to ensure these type of comments aren’t seen by the general public.

Some may argue that Gunn Confessions gives a platform for all students to speak out on personal problems and say anything they want, and that they have the right to do so because of the freedom of speech. However, this is untrue. With Gunn Confessions, not all submitted confessions (which oftentimes aren’t even confessions at all) are actually posted. This is because the admins of the account say they moderate the page heavily by not posting spam or other unwanted messages. The problem this creates is that the account is not actually showing all of the confessions students actually have, which gives a false representation as to how Gunn students are actually thinking.

Another argument in support of the page is that students are stressed and need a page like Gunn Confessions to serve as an outlet. However, there is nothing proving that this page actually helps with relieving stress—rather, it serves as just another way for students to procrastinate and avoid doing their schoolwork. Ironically, this would likely make students even more stressed, because they now have to stay up longer finishing assignments after getting distracted from scrolling through the thousands of different confessions.

Yes, Gunn Confessions clearly can be a way for someone who seriously needs help to get it anonymously. However, the cons still outweigh the pros, especially when there are many better ways to get help when needed.