As I stared at the empty text box in our blog About Section, my mind raced with what facts to include about myself. Naturally, one of the first organizations I associate myself with is my sorority, Delta Zeta. With a strong desire to fit in during my years at Pitt, I chose to go through the recruitment process to join a sorority to reduce estrangement and surround myself with women with whom I shared similar interests. The recruitment process is quite selective and vicious as students and sorority houses are required to rank each other every night after the parties. After every round, my peers would run out of the William Pitt Union with tears streaming down their faces because they got rejected from their dream sorority house. While these students are eager to fit in and feel accepted, the recruitment process completely backfired, thus leading to further damage to their self-esteem and alienation. These students are trying to fit in, they end up just standing out. 

Surprisingly, even after students receive their bids and participate in their dream house, the alienation does not stop here. Cyberbullying demographics state that the majority of people bullied are from the ages 9 to 18. But, I beg to differ.  College ACB was a discussion board that allowed students to anonymously post gossip and rumors about their fellow students. Typically this board was used among Greek Life students. Students comments are negative and abusive whether they are discussing the ugliest girls on campus or a girl who is easy to take advantage of. Are college students unaware of the devestating effects this may have on our generation? Out of the 17,000 students who attend Pitt, only 11% of the student body is in Greek Life. Shouldn't we all come together to put an end to these horrific comments? How does someone have the heart to degrade someone on an open forum? The University of Pittsburgh Panhellenic board has banned the website from on campus use. Although this does not limit students ability to view the website off campus. 

Interestingly, years after joining the temple, my bat mitzvah reading focused on the story of Cain and Abel and the question of “am I my brother’s keeper?” This same question can be raised about students who feel alienated from different forms of social media such as College ACB. Whose responsibility is it to step up and help? Are any of us responsible for helping anyone else? How do we do this without risking our status in our own groups? I spoke eloquently about this topic to a full audience at my bat mitzvah service but never made the connection in my heart regarding my own actions. If I truly believed that helping others was everyone’s responsibility, then maybe I could have set an example as a role model for my peers who might no longer this outreach as a threat to our own status. Maybe I could have helped someone from feeling alienated contributing to their positive self image.