As if 2020 could get any worse, Crushampton has shut down… and with it, our hearts have broken. Seriously. Everyone’s favourite pastime and most beloved companion has called it quits, right when we needed it the most. From long library sessions, to hungover phone scrolls, Crushampton has been the beating heart of Southampton for so long, keeping us all occupied when we should really be revising or socialising.
For those who are unaware of what Crushampton is – where have you been? Only joking! It is a confessions page allowing individuals to anonymously submit messages to other people. Primarily set up for confessions of crushes, as the name suggests, the account later segwayed into sharing content ranging from messages between friends, to facts about restaurants and odes to Jesters. Often anonymous polls were released asking followers to react to the confession with their opinions on things like clubs, societies and romantic preferences. In short, Crushampton engaged the thousands of Southampton students in daily content and social media interaction from reacting to the posts to tagging friends. Its closure may leave a gap in our lives, but our weekly screen time report will almost certainly show a decrease in Facebook interaction as a result.
There is no denying that Crushampton became a part of the lifestyle of so many. However, whilst most of the posts were jovial and fun, it wasn’t all positive. In between the funny statements and light-hearted confessions, the account has been known to share some nasty submissions pointedly aimed at individuals or a group. Whilst they had some restrictions in place, and admitted they didn’t publish certain submissions by way of ‘mod comment’ additions to the confessions, Crushampton has been blamed for creating a toxic online environment. From people accusing others of submitting confessions about themselves, to mean and cutting comments made about specific people, the darker side of the account was clear. Whilst this lies with what people are submitting and not the account moderators themselves, it doesn’t take away from the negative impact it has had. As such, some have even welcomed its deletion, seeing it as a refreshing move, and whilst it was fun while it lasted, it’s time to move on.
Nevertheless, this negativity was vastly overshadowed by hilarious submissions, from tributes to iconic scenes from the clubs the night before, to people desperately trying to find out the name of the person they’d spent the night with. It became habit to tag friends in confessions they thought were about them or to just laugh at some of the content. No day was complete without a Crushampton scroll, especially during exam season when almost every submission is about someone in the library providing endless fun – and distraction – to get us through the 12-hour grind.
Its closure has prompted a copycat style account, fittingly named ‘Crushampton II’, to start up. However, the question on everyone’s mind is, ‘can it really fill the void in our hearts?’ Who knows, only time will tell. For now, let’s reflect on the gift that was Crushampton and reminisce about those good old days…
