Expat students divulge personal secrets through confession pages

Expatriate students in the Kingdom divulge their deepest secrets anonymously online. Confessions that were once penned in a personal diary are now shared on social media.
Many schools in all regions of the Kingdom have their own confessions pages on Facebook. These include the International Indian School, Delhi Public School, Pakistan International School, Bangladesh International School and Al-Mawarid International School. Their confessions pages were introduced at the beginning of last month.
“We have seen confessions pages for our colleges, so we thought it would be good to start one for our own school,” said the anonymous administrator of the IISD (International Indian School-Dammam) confessions page on Facebook. “The original idea was to start it only for our current students. Then we started getting responses from students who had graduated almost 15 years ago, so we opened the page for all.”
Anonymous confession pages reveal students’ personal struggles, secret crushes and bad habits from over the years. People who comment on these confessions often provide advice and counsel students who were highly affected by certain incidents that happened during school.
Vice Principal at IISJ Farah Masood wholeheartedly welcomed the page.
“It is a platform for the students to share their good and bad experiences in school, a place where they can relive their days at school discussing their achievements and the naughty things they did whenever they got a chance.”
Masood mentioned that with the advancement of technology and open media where every individual can express his or her opinion, this move by students is appreciated.
“We as teachers are open to criticism if there is any and are glad to read about the good things they write about their alma-mater,” said Masood. “I would only request the students and the ex-students to write facts and not fictitious incidents and experiences. I am sure with the values that we have passed on to these generations that have left us our students will never let their school down. I wish them the very best in making this page one of the best and would make this page a tribute to their school, which was their second home.”
The International Indian School-Dammam confession page has around 740 confessions posted so far, while The IIS Jeddah confessions page has around 830. DPS Jeddah confession page has accumulated 150 confessions and the page of BISJ-ES (Bangladesh International School Jeddah, English Section) has reached over 70 confessions while it has only just started.
“Almost half of the posts are from people confessing their love for someone. We did have some posts where people found it difficult to confess openly and would rather use the ‘anonymous’ tag,” said the IISD page administrator. “People find it easier to confess without revealing their identity. We’ve had quite a few posts about sexual harassment. People love getting something off their chest; it is human nature. They love it even more when they don’t have to reveal their true identity.”
While a majority of the students find it comforting and interesting to confess their “secrets” to the world anonymously, others find it humiliating.
A senior student of IISJ, Sadaf Khan, said confession pages are “socially and morally degrading.”
“It is a page that encourages posts that disrespect teachers and elders from the school in the name of freedom of expression,” said Khan. “Although the posts are anonymous, it gives a highly negative impression to readers about the individuals criticized on this page and the reality may be completely different from what was confessed.”
Khan adds that since individual experiences and expectations are dynamic, the experiences of a few people do not necessarily represent the opinion of the majority about any person in the school.
“Readers tend to form an opinion about the school, its teachers and students and this page serves no constructive purpose. It exposes the conduct and deeds of students that should not be shared in public. These kind of posts spread unruly behavior, insincerity and mischief among students and they tend to follow the examples set by the authors of these anonymous posts. Therefore, I strongly oppose such a page on Facebook and request its administrators to discontinue the page and create something more beneficial for the IISJ family and students in general.”
Fazeela Farzan, head girl at IISJ, is against such a forum on a public platform. “The primary reason is that such groups are not being used as a constructive tool and are rather devastating the image of the educational institutions. There is no proof of truth behind these confessions and gives undue advantage to immature teens who want to get even with fellow students. Moreover, students and ex-students write about incidents that can cause damage to one’s image or personal life.”
Farzan adds that if the school thinks these pages are a platform where students can express their feelings, then it should be done at a school level. “It would at least yield fruitful results rather than exhibiting these issues publicly. That is nothing but a waste of time.”
The administrator of the DPS Jeddah confessions page thinks that these pages have given students a safe and secure platform where they can share the experience they encountered during their school years.
“Confessions on our page range from fun stuff to serious issues,” said the anonymous administrator of DPS Jeddah Confessions page on Facebook. “A confession came in few days ago regarding a suicide attempt by one of our students. So many people actually calmed him and gave him the courage and opportunity to change things. Furthermore, this page also gives such students hope. The basic idea of our confession page is to protect the identities.”
The administrator of DPS Jeddah Confessions page also mentioned that they follow strict censorship on their page, which allows people to maintain a good relation with administrators even though they have never met them in person.