A new Facebook page, “Monmouth Compliments,” has been created to help anyone who is a part of the University community express praises secretly without being judged.
The creator of the Facebook page, who is a sophomore but asked to remain anonymous, said, “The page is meant for people to send in their compliments, a friendly message or an inside joke even; but anonymously, so that way people are free to say what they feel without feeling like they will be judged, which tends to stop a lot of people from speaking their minds on things.”
An example of a post that can be found on the page is: “I hope every single one of you reaches your goals this semester, it’s gonna be a great one! Live it up like never before – a student like you.”
The creator explained that this was something he/she had never done before. The idea for “Monmouth Compliments” came from the creator seeing a similar page made by The College of New Jersey (TCNJ). The creator said, “I saw how happy the page was making people [at TCNJ] and I love making people smile. I wanted to do something different than what had already been done here at Monmouth. So, I thought taking the idea and making it MU would be a way for me to make the campus a better place.”
“Monmouth Compliments” is not only meant for students but anyone and everyone who is a part of the University, according to the creator.
When asked if the Facebook page was meant to help against cyber bullying, the creator explained that he/she sees “Monmouth Compliments” as a way to combat it. He/she continued by saying that social media can be used in a positive or negative way, but the negative way is heard about more often. “This is my attempt to change that,” the creator said.
Lucy Russo, junior and vice president of major/special events at the Student Activities Board (SAB), feels the Facebook page is an excellent page to have with all the cyber bullying that happens nowadays. She said, “Something Monmouth has, and I’m sure other schools have as well, are many links to social networks such as Twitter’s MonmouthUProblems and Facebook’s Monmouth Memes, so it’s refreshing to see a kind account, although all are very entertaining to students.”
Brittany Godburn, junior, also believes “Monmouth Compliments” is a positive page against cyber bullying. “I think it’s nice because people sometimes use being anonymous as a way to spread a lot of hate and such, but the fact that this is anonymous but still monitored is a really good thing,” she said.
Dr. George Kapalka, a professor and the Chair of the Department of Psychologiacl Counseling, has never heard of the page before. However, after he was made aware of it, he did look at the “Monmouth Compliments” page. After understanding what the page was meant for, Kapalka said, “I think this is a nice thing to do and certainly seeing his/her name there must make the recipient feel really good.”
Even though Kapalka believes “Monmouth Compliments” was a nice page to have been made, he also feels the page may be a bit too predictable and wonders if people will get tired of it easily. He said, “However, in general, yes, it is nice to create a page focused on positive communication, although I am curious how the nature of the posts will be monitored/enforced and whether people will lose interest.”
The creator explains that he/she monitors the messages and makes sure they are appropriate before posting them on the Facebook page. He/she continues by saying the page has also never received a negative comment.
The Facebook page has not gotten any negative feedback either, according to the creator. “People who have used the page have absolutely loved it,” the creator said.
Godburn has never used “Monmouth Compliments” before. However, she said, “I think it’s nice since there’s so much negativity flying around all the time that there’s a place for people to compliment others, whether they know them or not.”
“I like the idea of Hawks spreading positivity within our community,” Russo said. “My favorite [posts] are the ones that thank people for helping someone and saying you may not have known but it did not go unnoticed. I think it’s important to receive that positive feedback which will inspire people to continue kind acts.”
“Monmouth Compliments” was created on Dec. 12, 2012. It has 316 Facebook “likes” so far but the creator envisions it to eventually reach 1,500 plus.
When asked if the creator would make another page like this in the future, he/she replied, “I may do something similar to this if another idea pops into my head, but for right now I want to work on making this a big part of Monmouth tradition in the social media world.”
“Monmouth Compliments” can be accessed with the link: https://www.facebook.com/MonmouthCompliments.
