One of the lessons Weinstein and GoodCrush employees took from the JuicyCampus fiasco was constant moderation of user posts. Weinstein admits that the site’s motto, “Connecting student bodies like never before,” is a playful double entendre, but he pledged that unseemly content or rumor-mill fodder would be deleted from the site.
“In a lot of ways, JuicyCampus separated and divided student bodies,” he said. “And we’re ensuring that there’s cordial and friendly dialog rather than the inappropriate and malicious posts that were on JuicyCampus.”
In a note posted on JuicyCampus in February 2009, just before the site shut down, CEO Matt Ivester said economic realities doomed the gossip site, not pressure from student groups and campus officials.
“Unfortunately, even with great traffic and strong user loyalty, a business can’t survive and grow without a steady stream of revenue to support it,” Ivester said in his statement, adding that JuicyCampus had 1 million unique visitors every month. “In these historically difficult economic times, online ad revenue has plummeted, and venture capital funding has dissolved.”
Weinstein said the idea for an anonymous matchmaker web site originated in high school, when students at Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan would post lists of their crushes on bulletin boards. More than 500 postings would hang from a single wall, he said, and the tradition was “one of the highlights” of the school year.
“It was just something everybody did,” he said, “so it became normalized.”
Corinne Gregory, an author and expert on social skills, said GoodCrush’s anonymity could be ideal for students too shy to approach a person they know from class, but any connections made via the web should be viewed skeptically until a relationship is established.
“If all goes well, it might be a fun way to explore a ‘crush,’ but with all these types of outlets and social sites, you have to consider the worst-case scenario,” said Gregory, author of the book, It’s Not Who You Know, It’s How You Treat Them, scheduled for release in May. “I say students should stick to their own social circles and work on building local, live connections rather than trolling out on the internet to see what’s out there.”
Using a matchmaker web site like GoodCrush might pay dividends for some students, but others will regret pursuing relationships in an anonymous online forum, Gregory said.
“Sometimes that’s a rock that’s better left undisturbed, because you can bet there’s potential for trouble,” she said.
Link:
- Research: Social media has negative impact on academic performance - April 2, 2020
- Number 1: Social media has negative impact on academic performance - December 31, 2014
- 6 reasons campus networks must change - September 30, 2014