Who was spotted?

By Sandee Nho

Anonymous submissions from students may take away the responsibility of a comment on Facebook, but does it take away the meaning?

With over 4,000 “likes” Spotted at UWindsor’s Facebook page is beginning to get negative responses from students. The web page is dedicated to posting submissions anonymously  by individuals personally messaging the account. You can find page posts complimenting strangers, complaints of on campus activity and subtle thank-yous. Anyone with an account can “like” posts or comment to tag who they think the post is about. However, among these posts, students are giving their opinions on whether they agree or disagree with the posts.

Katrine Stolarchuk, a student from the human kinetics program at the university said the page is both a positive and negative idea.

“I believe that it can be somewhat offensive at times, especially if people give too much of a description of who they are talking about,” said Stolarchuk. “It also helps the kids on campus interact more, giving a chance for everybody to be brought together through the site.”

Windsor’s university isn’t the only post-secondary school with a “Spotted at” page. Western University of Ontario, Brock University, Ryerson University and several other universities and colleges have pages with as many as 13,000 “likes.” On Oct. 10, a “Spotted at St. Clair” page was created by an unknown source. Felicia Rustico, a student in the child and youth worker program at St. Clair, said students submitting posts should be careful before clicking send.

“I think it’s a really entertaining idea, however, I don’t believe that you should completely rely on the owner of the page to keep it anonymous,” said Rustico. “I wouldn’t say anything you wouldn’t want the world knowing you said. Same goes for anything else you think you’re saying anonymously on the internet.”

Rustico confirmed the administrator of the Spotted at St. Clair page is a regular full time student at the college. Along with the other “Spotted at” pages, the admins of the pages are run by regular full-time students and not paid professionals.

“You’re telling someone in the student body something that is just being broadcasted without your name,” said Rustico.

The students running both “Spotted at” Facebook pages remain anonymous.