There has been a Facebook craze circulating UNH these past few weeks, a new creation to keep students as distracted in class as texting or sleeping does. UNH Confessions is a page created by a female student attending UNH. Here students are able to anonymously post opinions, desires, or rant about anything going on around campus. There are about 5,000 undergrads and the confessions page has almost 2,000 likes. I recently contacted the creator of this page through their anonymous Facebook account, to try and understand their motives and perceptions of the page.

PO: Were you intimidated to create this account?

UNH Confessions: No I wasn’t.

Is there anything that persuaded you to do it?

I saw that Boston College had a “Boston College Confessions” page and was browsing it one day. I thought, this is a fun looking page, and hey, UNH should have one. Upon making the page, I expected 200 likes, not nearly 2,000. The page had a lot of jokes posted to it, which make me laugh, but at the same time, some people use it as a way to actually express themselves and their problems. If you have noticed, there has been a lot of support to some of the posts where people are looking for friends or feel left out of UNH. Some people mention how a girl is beautiful and I feel that can make someone’s day better!

Do you think the laughs people get outweigh some negativity?

There have been a lot of hateful “confessions” people have sent me through messages or anonymously via the link. I monitor every post and do not post anything that can be viewed as directly affecting someone in a negative way by using their names. I don’t want anyone’s feeling hurt by this page, but rather as a place to laugh, or express themselves. This, I feel, could be a step in the right direction of maybe coming out and looking for others directly for support rather than anonymously.

Do you post everything or select certain things?

As long as the question isn’t something hateful, rude or inappropriate, illegal, or plain old spam, I will post it. If it’s obviously fake, I will not post it; there’s been one submitted about a pink dragon turtle thing like a million times.

Are there any confessions that stand out, or are most memorable to you?

The ones that have a lot of support behind them like the ones about someone not having friends on campus, and a lot of people post saying how they will be friends with them. That makes me hope that they actually add them, make more friends on campus and enjoy campus living.

Have you ever submitted your own confessions?

Haha, I have definitely submitted my own confessions. It’s a great way to see people’s opinions on a topic without having to worry about the consequences. I’m not saying you should only post to the page, but this is a way to help see how others look at something. Use it as a stepping-stone to open up more to people you know.

Has this been a distraction?

Without a doubt. I’ll admit, I skipped doing homework and some essays my first week on maintaining the page, which is definitely not right. I love seeing kids viewing the page in class, but you should be paying attention to your schoolwork, and enjoy the page later. You are paying for that class; learn, and don’t mess around. I have caught up with my work though, that’s why I took a little break from posting recently.

Do you have any opinions of New Haven Crushes or The Real UNH?

The Real UNH is a knock off; they asked for “promotion” and are going to get themselves in trouble by posting certain things that shouldn’t be posted, or making people feel self-conscious about themselves. As for New Haven Crushes, I really don’t care about them. They’re their own entity, also hosting ECSU, CCSU, SCSU, WCSU, and UCONN. “The Real UNH” doesn’t have anything anonymous; he takes them all by email or Facebook message and can get some real dirt if in the wrong hands.

Has running this page changed any perspectives you had of the school, students or community?

I’ll admit, I have looked at some people differently, knowing some things about them, or the things they have done. But I won’t ever let them know I know, and I won’t tell others that I know. Everyone has a right to their opinion and what they do and it should be kept that way. Although, I am shocked at the “extracurricular activities” that go down at the school.