For those on campus who have been waiting with bated breath for an opportunity to talk anonymously about other students, wait no longer Bored at Baker is back. For all who don't know, Bored at Baker is a live gossip blog where all the posters are anonymous. Anybody can go on at any time and write anything he'd like, and his comment is immediately posted. This means that some pretty real tidbits get posted, as well as some egregiously false ones and everything in between. Basically, besides its humor value I'll admit that I've laughed at a couple of posts Bored at Baker is one of the worst things to happen to Dartmouth's social scene in recent memory, turning a normally warm environment into one where rumors are spread and feelings are hurt.
Despite the fact that we are 4,000 ambitious 18- to 22-year-olds who are secluded in the New Hampshire woods, Dartmouth students are very kind to each other. This statement seems simple, but it does hold merit. Granted, with rush and pledging, right now campus isn't the nicest it's ever been. Still, everywhere you look, you will see many examples of Dartmouth students doing nice things for each other, and strikingly few examples of malevolence. Examples of kindness can be found across the whole spectrum of Dartmouth life: a student will both pull a friend's trigger and proofread his essay (not at the same time).
We want to see each other do well, whether that be academically, socially or athletically. Think about sorority rush, which should be just about the cruelest thing that Dartmouth ever subjects its students to. Although almost one-third of women participating in rush this year dropped out, I have no doubts in my mind that the Panhellenic Council went into the process with only the best intentions at heart. They wanted to try as hard as they could to make sure that the most girls were satisfied and the fewest had their feelings hurt. Or look at student attendance at athletic events. Given the state of Dartmouth athletics right now, many of us are not showing up to any of these games to see professional-level play, or even to see the Big Green win. A good portion of us go because we want to cheer on our classmates and see their accomplishments.
Inevitably, as we are a group of young people living in the same small space, some toes are going to be stepped on, and some people are going to want to say or do mean things. I know that this school is not a utopia, and that people have cruel moments, but in general, Dartmouth's culture does not tolerate such actions. Vendettas are frowned upon, and mean-hearted gossip is quickly stamped out or at least not given a public forum. As a result, most of the mean things that we have to say to each other remain unsaid, or, at the very least, private. While a small portion of these comments need to be stated, and can even be cathartic, the vast majority don't need to be expressed. Bored at Baker gives people the opportunity to let these unnecessary and malevolent opinions fly without any negative repercussions for the speaker, and that's when feelings get hurt.
This column would be morally misguided without an indictment of the anonymous posters on Bored at Baker who choose to spend their study breaks talking trash about their classmates: You are the scum of this campus. You hide behind your computer screens and write horrible things about the people that you see every day things you don't have the courage to say to their faces. Alerting the entire school to somebody's drug habit or eating disorder, or to the details of their sexuality, is one of the meanest things that you could possibly do. You are the bored haters who can't find a proper outlet for your spite in Dartmouth's positive atmosphere, and so you choose to use the Internet as your playground. Of course, I realize that when this column is published, I am inviting the bored haters to drag my name through the mud in an anonymous gossip blog. Well, if that's the price that I have to pay for giving those people the judgment they deserve, then so be it.
