If you're lucky enough to be involved in an organization with your 10 best friends and you have little interest in meeting new people, then Dartmouth's social culture is perfect for you and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. But it's telling that juniors' social lives have become so stale, rigid and confined that a secret club is the only way for them to meet new people. I'm in BG, Panarchy, a secret society and, most recently, Tabard. Yes, I do receive hundreds of blitzes per hour, and yes, I do find emptying my inbox exhausting. But I didn't join these groups to impress people with my vast collection of social networks. I joined because Dartmouth culture actively discourages people from branching out. To make new friends outside of a social group is perceived as disloyal.
Secret societies are unique in the sense that they provide an unusually neutral context to meet new people. By diminishing the importance of the other factors, like Greek affiliation, secret societies allow for fresh social interaction in a way that basements and classrooms don't. But they ultimately replace one kind of insularity with another. Despite how innocuous some may attempt to portray the tapping process, it's ultimately a week of collective social masturbation. While it may help some push beyond their comfort zones, it's meant to show who has arrived and who got left behind, and from then on out, membership is social capital. It can be overtly referenced when convenient, or, it can be subtly implied with a raised pinky, a rolled up shirt sleeve, a two finger gesture or a wink wink.
