Monday, February 25, 2008
Blogs: Bad for the Community
The Crimson reports that there's a new gossip website at Harvard, "Gossip Geek," though it doesn't actually bother to link to the site, and the print version doesn't even list the URL.
Yours truly has no such reticence. Here's Gossip Geek.
Seems pretty tame to me, but some students apparently are up in arms, complaining about the photos posted on the site.
... acting Dean of the College David R. Pilbeam said the administration is “making efforts” to protect students from the site.
Secretary of the Administrative Board Jay L. Ellison has recommended that those affected file a police report with Harvard University Police Department in order to expedite administrative response.
“I think these [blogs] are bad, and bad for the community,” said Ellison in an e-mailed statement. “Indeed, even if what is said is true there is never enough context in these type of things to fully understand what happened.”
A police report? Harvard really wants to promote the idea that posting a photo of someone in a public place is a crime? You can hear the laughter all the way from Stanford.
That idea would have interesting implications for Facebook, whose founder, Mark Zuckerberg, Harvard hopes will be a huge donor one day.....
More to the point, this is one of those times when Harvard and its students want to have it both ways: The university wants its celebrity status, promotes its celebrity status, markets its celebrity status...but then, when people respond by treating Harvard and its denizens as if they are celebrities (Gossip Geek=the TMZ of Harvard), university officials say, well, we don't want that part of celebrity....
When you are the most famous university in the world, and you spend enormous effort and money trying to achieve and retain that status—or when you attend Harvard for fundamentally that reason—you can not have it both ways. ¶ 8:10 AM
Yours truly has no such reticence. Here's Gossip Geek.
Seems pretty tame to me, but some students apparently are up in arms, complaining about the photos posted on the site.
... acting Dean of the College David R. Pilbeam said the administration is “making efforts” to protect students from the site.
Secretary of the Administrative Board Jay L. Ellison has recommended that those affected file a police report with Harvard University Police Department in order to expedite administrative response.
“I think these [blogs] are bad, and bad for the community,” said Ellison in an e-mailed statement. “Indeed, even if what is said is true there is never enough context in these type of things to fully understand what happened.”
A police report? Harvard really wants to promote the idea that posting a photo of someone in a public place is a crime? You can hear the laughter all the way from Stanford.
That idea would have interesting implications for Facebook, whose founder, Mark Zuckerberg, Harvard hopes will be a huge donor one day.....
More to the point, this is one of those times when Harvard and its students want to have it both ways: The university wants its celebrity status, promotes its celebrity status, markets its celebrity status...but then, when people respond by treating Harvard and its denizens as if they are celebrities (Gossip Geek=the TMZ of Harvard), university officials say, well, we don't want that part of celebrity....
When you are the most famous university in the world, and you spend enormous effort and money trying to achieve and retain that status—or when you attend Harvard for fundamentally that reason—you can not have it both ways. ¶ 8:10 AM
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I think the battle for Harvard's soul has now officially been lost:
"Not really news, but, Derek Nakano Jones '09 is totally bangable. I would hit that so hard.
Love, Sebby"
"Not really news, but, Derek Nakano Jones '09 is totally bangable. I would hit that so hard.
Love, Sebby"
# posted by 
: February 25, 2008 9:43 AM
: February 25, 2008 9:43 AM
Richard, your point is absurd. Why should undergraduates have to suffer so that Harvard can maintain its celebrity status? One post on the blog (which has since been taken down) "reports" how one well-known student was seen exiting the Bureau of Study Counsel; the post proceeded to conjecture about what type of mental health issue that student might be dealing with. Are you saying that Harvard has to tolerate this sort of muck in order to maintain its prestige? Why shouldn't the Administrative Board do whatever it can, within the limits of the law and FAS regulations, to protect its students?
Conceded that some of the posts are benign, if in poor taste. But some are mean-spirited, like the one I mentioned above. What next--will these bloggers stake out the UHS mental health floor, or the Bureau, or Jay Ellison's office, to dig up more juicy tidbits on other Harvard students? Should that be tolerated?
--Current Harvard undergraduate
Conceded that some of the posts are benign, if in poor taste. But some are mean-spirited, like the one I mentioned above. What next--will these bloggers stake out the UHS mental health floor, or the Bureau, or Jay Ellison's office, to dig up more juicy tidbits on other Harvard students? Should that be tolerated?
--Current Harvard undergraduate
# posted by : February 25, 2008 2:58 PM
: February 25, 2008 2:58 PM
At the end of the day, what can you do about postings made on an anoymous blog? That is, assuming none of the writers are using their real names - if they are, obviously then can come under scrutiny. But without names, the College's hands are tied. Good luck trying to get Yahoo or whomever to cooperate - maybe if they post illicit photos or some such egregious material, but gossipy - even trashy - hearsay isn't something you can probably stop in an anonymous forum.
# posted by : February 25, 2008 5:29 PM
: February 25, 2008 5:29 PM
2:58, I hadn't seen the post you refer to, but completely agree that that's mean-spirited and inappropriate, and sadly violates the sense of community that Harvard would like to foster.
It does, however, seem a replication of the celebrity culture—catching someone leaving the hospital!—and so as much as I deplore it, the point still stands. When you attend a celebrity university, and one which promotes itself as a celebrity, you're going to benefit from that...and see some of the more unfortunate aspects of it as well.
It does, however, seem a replication of the celebrity culture—catching someone leaving the hospital!—and so as much as I deplore it, the point still stands. When you attend a celebrity university, and one which promotes itself as a celebrity, you're going to benefit from that...and see some of the more unfortunate aspects of it as well.
Also, current Harvard student, let's be honest and admit that many undergraduates *go* to Harvard because of its celebrity status, and in later years derive enormous financial benefit and social prestige from that status. This is the dark flip side of the coin....
The issue isn't Harvard's "celebrity status," but rather, the cult of celebrity itself that the current youth culture (including some Harvard undergraduates) has embraced, and more to the point, afforded a measure of normalcy and respectability. The line between famous and infamous is increasingly indistinct, a perfect example of which is Harvard's Lena Chen and her 'Sex In The Ivy' blog. Whether it's narcissism, insecurity, or something else, there's a desire to achieve 15 minutes of fame in a word where 15 minutes ago is ancient history, even for Harvard students.
# posted by : February 25, 2008 10:04 PM
: February 25, 2008 10:04 PM
I imagine the Harvard administration is trying to avoid a repeat of "college juice" ( http://jezebel.com/359142/former-frat-boy-hides-behind-first-amendment-for-slanderous-site ) or, God forbid, AutoAdmit. I know young women who've been victimised by the users of these sites, and what started off as poor-taste gossip escalated very fast (into threats of sexual violence, and even having strangers turn up on their doorsteps and call their professors). As an alumna, I am glad that Harvard is doing its best to protect its students, and I certainly don't see that attending a famous university means that any of us were or are "asking for it" in the way that RB so unpleasantly seems to be suggesting here.
# posted by : February 26, 2008 9:43 PM
: February 26, 2008 9:43 PM
Well... none of you seems to include the fact that not only are the stories published on Gossip Geek generally benign, they are almost always outrageously and utterly false. One post claims that one student traded a painting for a place on board the first tourist flight to space; another claims that a very rich student forwent his inheritance to pursue his dream to be a dancer -- and then links to a YouTube video of a man with the same name but very obviously not the same features. The people who think students need to be protected from this site are the ones who clearly do not understand that it is not a real gossip blog, but a parody of a real gossip blog and a parody of Harvard students' obsessions with their own success and celebrity.
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# posted by : March 13, 2008 5:41 AM
: March 13, 2008 5:41 AM<< Home
