Last year students saw the rise of unofficial school Instagram pages. From accounts featuring students sleeping to bad parking jobs, dozens of accounts were made following the surge of a TikTok trend. While most of these accounts have died off, one account is still popular and active. While the other Instagram accounts became boring after a few weeks, I think this page still provides entertainment for students.

@not_lhs_confessions, an anonymous Instagram account, is dedicated to posting students’ confessions sent in through Google Forms. With over 2,500 Google form submissions, 1,300 posts, and 565 followers, the account is no secret to students.

“Even though I don’t have an Instagram account, I’ve been well aware of Liberty’s confessions account since sophomore year,”  junior Shikha Bolar said.

As such a popular account, it’s only natural for students to wonder about the owner behind it all. Despite dozens of students trying to figure out the owner’s identity, the person’s identity remains something of a secret. 

“I already know a lot of people know who I am,” Confessions said. “I stopped caring at this point because I can’t control what people gossip about.”

Although the administrator of the confessions page only made this page for entertainment, they are aware of the adverse effects that can arise from their page.

“The positives [of running the account] would be that the confessions are very entertaining and bring joy to a lot of people,” Confessions said. “The negatives would be the toxicity of some confessions, which I stopped posting for obvious reasons.”

In addition to toxic confessions are impersonation, vulgar comments, and fake accusations against staff and students. So while the intentions behind the page may be good, I’ve seen that the page can be a spot for hatred.

The negativity can be tied back to the anonymity of the page. Because students are free to write anything they wish with little to no repercussions, they are more confident writing negative things about the staff or their peers.

“I’ve noticed gossip from certain posts which can negatively impact those involved,” Bolar said. “A lot of posts have disturbing comments that can be triggering, especially for the people involved in the post.”

However, the anonymity isn’t all harmful. Many students with mental health issues submit their struggles and journey on the page. As someone with their fair share of mental health issues, I can see the appeal of writing an anonymous rant and sending it off to an unknown figure. 

Although this can be great for blowing off steam, issues can arise when students share suicidal ideations. Not only can they be triggering to others, but the student will not be able to receive adequate coping strategies or help from professionals.

Even with the negativity that comes with being the owner of the Instagram account, Confessions finds joy in the account.

“My favorite thing about running the account would be knowing that I’m the reason a lot of people from our school can come together to share their thoughts and opinions,” they said. “So no, it [running the account] doesn’t stress me out.”