by Hadley O’Bryan
Centre College is officially classified as a small school, home to around 1,400 students most of whom live on campus full time. In a school small enough that all of us could fit in Newlin at one time and have seats still available, one can imagine how quickly rumors spread on this campus—especially at a time when we’re more connected than ever. With the rise of social media platforms like YikYak, a rumor spreads to a large portion of the school in seconds.
Many people have at one point in time had gossip spread about them, but very few have become a campus-wide sensation. On occasion, though, a rumor will become a widely used conversation piece on campus. Rumors are fun to talk about, except to those who are the subjects of the rumors.
I spoke to one Northside resident who has chosen to remain anonymous. He and his podmates have recently become subject of one of the largest campus rumors. This all emerged from a YikYak post six weeks ago about a group of Northside residents supposedly in a polyamorous relationship. He says that becoming campus gossip has changed his life, and that prior to that post, nobody had ever bothered him or his podmates about their personal lives.
He says that he has not been approached directly since the post, but many of the others have been questioned during their day-to-day lives. He feels lucky that people haven’t realized who lives in the pod, and is paranoid about his name getting added to the known list. He’s worried that these rumors will drive a wedge between him and his podmates, who are a very close-knit group, and says this is the last thing he would ever want.
He also says the biggest issue he has is privacy, a sentiment echoed throughout his pod—many of whom expressed to me that they wouldn’t mind the posts so much if they were more respectful, and if people didn’t approach them offline to discuss it. They are already experiencing negative effects in terms of paranoia and increased fights about how to handle the situation. The group reminds us that if you wouldn’t want posts made about everything that happens in your relationships to please refrain from posting theirs. Perhaps we can all be a little kinder by doing unto others only what we would have them do onto us.
On a campus this small, privacy can seem like a luxury. This group of Northside residents urges their peers to be kind to relationships they don’t understand and to remember that when you post about someone, there’s a real person on the other side of the screen.