@UMDConfessions is gaining popularity among UMD students

Many University of Maryland students share at least one guilty pleasure: @UMDConfessions. Over the past few weeks, the Twitter account has amassed more than 7,000 followers.

The account gives students the opportunity to air their thoughts and feelings to the public, while remaining anonymous. Students send their confessions to the account through an ask.fm website. Then, the unknown account owner posts the confessions on the Twitter feed.

Since students do not have to reveal their identities, some of the confessions are bizarre and even vulgar. Still, students find themselves reading the tweets to be entertained.

“I follow the account because it is relevant to me. It’s cool to see things that affect me and I like to see what my peers are up to. Plus people say some pretty funny things on there,” Devin Turk, a junior broadcast journalism and government and politics major, says.

Turk’s personal favorite tweet is: “@UMDConfessions: DOTs sucks. They drive around in their fuel-wasting pick-up trucks throwing around tickets like confetti.”

In addition to entertaining students, the Twitter account helps unite the University of Maryland community. PJ Rey, a sociology graduate assistant, believes students  follow @UMDConfessions to feel more connected to the university.

“By sharing common thoughts and experiences, however rude, salacious or bizarre they might be, students are building a sense of collective identity. When you see something familiar in these tweets, you feel like you’re a part of something,” Rey says.

Christa Giannaccini, a sophomore, thinks the account has the potential to both help and hurt students.

“It can make people feel better if they also do the same things people confess about, but at the same time it can be hurtful or offensive if the confessions are rude,” Giannaccini says

With the advent of social media, people should not expect @UMDConfessions to be taken down, even if some of the tweets are offensive.

“It has become common to see these sorts of anonymous public forums associated with big institutions. @UMDConfessions isn’t surprising; it’s what any institution should expect in the era of social media,” Rey says.

College campuses across the nation have seen similar anonymous accounts pop up on Twitter. People can look at @FSUConfessions (Florida State University), @OSUConfessions (Ohio State University) and many more to read about the inner thoughts of other college students.