Conco gossip: A Cobber embarrassment

Spotted: outraged and embarrassed Cobbers on Twitter. A Twitter account called “Gossip Girl Conco” has been the talk of many students on campus, and rarely does it inspire positive thoughts. This account has the main goal of spreading rumors and causing scandal—exposing infidelity, sexual promiscuity and embarrassing moments. This anonymous account even has the audacity to name people in her tweets. (I say “her” because the account identifies itself as female, but it could be anyone). This account is a copycat of the popular TV series “Gossip Girl”, but unlike on TV the results of this account are harmful to the lives of its victims. And instead of being entertaining to millions, it only entertains one.

Many people, including myself, are outraged that this kind of immature and disrespectful Twitter account associates itself with our campus. Concordia is known for its incredible sense of community and its willingness to welcome all walks of life within that community. This reputation is something I personally love about Concordia, and it was definitely a reason why I chose to come to this college. This silly little “gossip girl” goes against everything that Concordia stands for—the things that make most of us proud to be called a “Cobber.”

I don’t need to explain why hiding behind anonymity and shaming others is saddening: most of us learned that in elementary school. However, this person is not only spreading rumors about our fellow students, but does so with a picture of our Concordia “C,” and identifies the college being from Moorhead, Minn. It is bad enough to write slander about our classmates, but to do so hidden under the name of our institution is down right wrong.

We have been engrained with the concept of “BREW” since the first day of orientation freshman year and have been told to implement this motto into everything we do as students and beyond (sorry to mention BREW, as we often roll our eyes when we hear it). Obviously, this account does not exemplify these ideals in any way, and therefore it is inappropriate to have it associated with Concordia at all. (It would, however, be appropriate if our student motto were “ALAIMS” or “Act Like An Immature Middle Schooler.”)

I won’t waste my time trying to convince this person to delete their account—a person of such emotional immaturity probably doesn’t pick up a newspaper often, nor do they listen to reason. I will say this—clearly this person uses the account because she loves to see the reactions it can cause in people. I urge everyone to ignore all attempts from this person to elicit a reaction from you. Whether you unfollow or block, don’t give them the satisfaction of knowing they got under your skin. It’s the same advice your mom gave you for the bullies on the playground, and your mom was right. It’s really the only way we are going to be able to stop these embarrassing activities from continuing.

Hopefully this Twitter account is only a temporary embarrassment on our campus, but if this “gossip girl” has her way, she is here to stay, tweeting last week, “I will bury all who oppose me.” The only thing that gives me comfort in this situation is the overwhelming amount of opposition I have seen toward this account from the student body. Many people have come forward to show their disgust and embarrassment towards these events, and while this only seems to amuse the “gossip girl” herself, I am proud of how our students refuse to tolerate this kind of ridiculous behavior. Continue to stand above this nonsense, and show our community what a real Cobber looks like.

This letter to the editor was written by Victoria Richmond, Concordia 2014.