By SAMANTHA BLAIR and HANNAH COHEN
Some Jericho students recently started, and within a month, deleted an Instagram account called jerichoconfessions on which they posted other students’ anonymous Sarahah comments. Sarahah is a social media platform that allows users to give and receive anonymous feedback.
The jerichoconfessions Instagram account was being maintained by students who do not want their identities known. The account was started by a freshman in early September who handed over control of the account to other students.
The posts included statements that ranged from commenting on a student’s looks to sharing attitudes about classes, teachers and school policies. While Instagram is not an anonymous site, Sarahah is. Users therefore posted their anonymous comments on Sarahah, and the jerichoconfessions Instagram account holders copied screenshots from Sarahah and posted them onto the Instagram account.
Students have mixed feelings about these accounts. Some feel it is helpful to share feelings without name attribution. Freshmen Alli P. said, “I feel like the reason people are confiding in this page is because it’s easier to share your feelings anonymously.” Freshman Emma S. said, ”I don’t really know how to feel about it. I like how you can share your opinion anonymously, but I wouldn’t want to be talked about on it either.”
Instagram’s story feature allows users to make temporary posts that will delete after 24 hours. On the jerichoconfessions story there were more negative and offensive posts than the ones directly posted on the main page. One freshman believes she was the victim of negative comments in a story. The story said, ”This freshie JC changed A LOT and not in a positive way.” After that story posted, another appeared stating, “Omg the JC one, I totally agree. She used to be super innocent and nice, but now…” Freshman Jasmine C. believes the posts were about her, although she cannot be certain since there is one other freshman in Jericho High School with the same initials. “The account spreads more harm than it does good,” Jasmine C. said.
The JerEcho recently learned the identity of the site’s originator. This person thought it would be an interesting idea to start such an account in Jericho, but was unsure how the school would react or how popular it would become. ”I got the idea from my friend who goes to a different school and I thought it would be cool,” the student said. The creator’s intention was to create a means for students to share helpful thoughts about school and friends. “My intention was for comments to be mostly positive,” the student said.
Within a week of its debut, the founder gave up ownership to another group of students, ”It was too time consuming and it’s kind of boring to work the account,” the student said. By mid-October the account had gained over 640 followers. However, the creators decided to delete the account due to the negativity of some of the comments. Since the account’s deletion two other such accounts have been started: jericho.anonymous with a bio that states, “JHS confessions” including a Sarahah account link, and jhsteacherroasts which claims to focus on “making memes and roasting teachers.”
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