A glass of wine is poured, a snack is prepared and a seemingly typical female college student throws on a hoodie before she settles down in front of her laptop for the evening. In one window on her screen is her calculus homework. However, in the tab open behind it, there is another kind of work she’s about to spend time on.

Recently, a new, nation-wide Facebook forum trend popped up. University students all over the country are creating open group pages that allow students of the schools to anonymously post about their campus confessions and latest love interests.

For the three anonymous administrators of the recently created UNCW Crushes & Stalkers Facebook page, maintaining the page has become more than just a silly Internet activity-it’s not just a hobby, it’s a duty. 

Two of the three administrators created the page over Easter Break when one of them saw an old friend tagged in a post on a “Crushes and Confessions” page from a different university. At around midnight on Saturday, March 30, the two created a UNCW version and began sending it out to other students. Soon after, one of their roommates, also a close friend, excitedly became the third administrator.

The page blew up the UNCW Facebook network as more and more students began to click the “Like” button. It did not take long for submissions of students’ crushes to start rolling in. 

“At first I was hesitant to post,” said sophomore Ashley Stoddard. “Now, I feel like I can just post about whoever I want.”

The group uses an online application called Survey Monkey to collect all the unsigned submissions. They admitted that they sought help from the monitor of a similar anonymous Facebook page, UNCW Confessions, who told them about the effectiveness of using the program as a way to get responses.

The girls created their own survey link where students can click to type their secret crush story in a box and hit submit without adding any identifying information. The administrators are able to close the survey link periodically so that they have time to go through and post the answers as Facebook status updates.

“We went the whole first day without closing it. We were getting like 100 [posts] every hour, but we learned our lesson,” said the second founder.

She explained that they now have it down to more of an organized process, rather than just letting an uncontrollable amount of posts pour in to the survey constantly.

Now, the three administrators of the page monitor and manage the posting of submission quotes in shifts, each often spending around two or three hours on Facebook a day.

Students who frequent the page complain jokingly that they have spent the last few weeks in a constant state of anticipation, always checking to see if they or anyone they know has been posted about. Obviously, this can cause a distraction from schoolwork and studying.

“It’s really distracting to be the one posting them,” said one of the administrators.

Since the administrators are the first to go through and look at each written quote, the three girls feel that the interruption is even greater for them.

For students who have been named “crushes,” there are mixed feelings about the overall concept.

“My reaction to the page was that it was funny, but that I would never be on there,” said junior Richard Vernon. “After being mentioned twice, I felt happy that I was being noticed around campus, and now the only thing my friends talk about is how I am ‘all over the crushes page.'”

Several staff members of the UNCW campus newspaper, The Seahawk, were mentioned, from the Sports section editor, sophomore McLeod Brown, to the Opinion section editor, senior Eliza Dillard.

The post directed at Dillard read: “Eliza Dillard, Opinion Editor of The Seahawk, if you want my opinion, you can get it.”

Most of the posts on the page are silly pick-up lines like this.

Other posts are longer and more detailed. Some extrapolate the subject’s beauty and physical features, others simply request a conversation in the future, but all of them are reminiscent of the “missed connections” section of the personal ads on websites like Craigslist.com. 

“At first I thought it was a funny idea,” said sophomore Clare Greene.

However, after she had a contributor write about briefly meeting her at a party downtown, Greene had a different opinion about it.

“When you are posted about and then get tagged in the comments, it’s embarrassing. And kind of creepy,” said Greene.

The administrators wrote on the page itself that it is all “Just for Fun,” and their hopes are that no one takes the page too seriously or gets too upset. They also took measures to control the page by posting rules and guidelines for the submissions, as well as censoring posts, to some extent.

On the survey, they added a blocked word list to censor anything inappropriate, and they try to read each and every submission before adding it to the Facebook wall.

“We have people posting about specific people so we don’t want anyone getting anyone else in trouble,” said one administrator.

“There is a possibility for bad things to happen. We don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings so if anything is posted maliciously, we don’t post it, ” the third administrator said.

The group also comes with the disclaimer: “This page is not affiliated with UNCW in any way. The posts do not reflect our, the page’s, or UNCW’s opinions.”

The administrators also put every post in quotes to reaffirm that they are simply posting the messages of other students, rather than their own words.  

The page has gained a trusting audience, with more and more people posting each day. Some people do not even use the survey; 20 or so people have sent their crushes straight to the message inbox of the Facebook page, despite that their names are visible to the administrators when using this method. These submitters trust the administrators to keep their identities a secret.

“I feel like if people knew who it was, they would be less likely to post. There’s more excitement in it being anonymous, it’s more fun,” said sophomore Jennifer Lohsen. 

Even the founders of the page enjoy the anonymous aspect of the page.

“I actually have posted,” said one of the girls. “But I even put it in the survey so that they,” she points to her two accomplices, “don’t even know.”

The three girls gush about the kinds of posts they love to get in the submissions.

“When we get a really cute one, we get a lot of enjoyment out of it,” said the third administrator.

She tells about how exciting it is to read something with a sweet message, especially when one turns up that is written about someone she knows.

“It makes people happy to see something written about them,” she said.

One unnamed poster summed up the appeal of the page.

“‘Thank you for breaking the monotony of Facebook and creating something wildly entertaining and uplifting. You have made an arguably “healthy” obsession for all of us!'”