For my project, I decided to examine a psychological space designed to have no Leviathan. Juicy Campus is an online forum where visitors (college students) can post anonymously on a variety of threads. The forum is not moderated—visitors can only eliminate their own posts and, therefore, discussion runs rampant in whatever direction the visitors chose. As a result, it seems practically impossible for a true Leviathan to emerge.
The results from this forum closely parallel the LamdaMOO experiment discussed in Chapter 4. When creators chose a laissex-faire approach, allowing visitors to control content at their own will, it caused chaos—and even a shocking cyberrape. Similarly, at its peak, Juicy Campus was known for mean-spirited comments, rumors, and other offensive content. Because there was no one to filter out the content, visitors could say whatever they wanted with no punishment: calling their peer an “ugly donkey,” or accusing them of being particularly promiscuous. As Catalina aptly stated in class, much of the content became sexual in nature, as is the tendency of college students. As the site started to both grow and grow out of control, people began to take notice. Some simply joined in the toxic discussion while others started to call for reform. Juicy Campus was becoming an unhealthy, and increasingly visible member of the campus community.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t much anyone could do about the website’s existence. As a result, people decided to boycott usage and as quickly as Juicy Campus had risen to notoriety, it fell. As Chapter 4 says, “the earthly authority that most people want and need must come, for the most part, from within—through popular consent and voluntary conformity to whatever rules and conventions emerge within each community.” Since Juicy Campus did not necessarily allow for any Leviathan to be present in its realm (because of its unique features) visitors found authority by voluntarily consenting to stop visiting the website. It is unique that such conformity emerged even in the absence of a true Leviathan.
However, one could argue, that those rebels actually became the Leviathan: that a sort of power vacuum emerged in the absence of a defined Leviathan. Also, you could argue that the creators of the website could also act as a Leviathan—even though they took a very “hands-off” role in this setting. Lastly, a Leviathan could arise in the actual government. With the increasing opposition to Juicy Campus, people may start bringing their concerns to court. Therefore, the government will become a Leviathan as well.
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4 comments:
I've always heard of the "Juicy campus" but never really knew what it was. It just goes to show what people would do when no control or social norm is present. It surprised me that people actually boycotted the site since most times negative publicity brings in even more viewers. I have found that a lot of people, especially young people like to do the opposite of what they are told, not necessarily because they want to be rebellious but more so out of curiousity.
I can't say if it's a Leviathan, but there may be a force that serves to curb what users post on Juicy Campus. The content on that site does get a little ridiculous, but it is viewable to everyone, and if there was a comment that said terrible things about your friend, or terrible things about someone in general, I have noticed that a few times, people would go (anonymously, of course), "What gives you the right to say that?" or "That poor girl, most people don't even know her!"
Of course, the effect is not as strong, since everything has no name attached, but there is a "Tsk-Tsk" form of interaction there. This is a good insight to Juicy Campus, though. I never would've thought of it when doing this assignment.
I had never heard of Juicy Campus, and I visited the site to see what it was about. It is a very interesting idea, especially when trying to pinpoint what/who the Leviathan is. I also noticed on the site that a lot of the posts seek information about greek life, etc. I also noticed that when there were mean posts, sometimes someone replied reproachfully to the mean comments. In this sense, the Leviathan appears to be the users themselves.
I remember when juicy campus started getting big and some of my friends would scour it for gossip or other rumors. This did not last very long and I agree with your assessment that people's non-usage of the site was a strong Leviathan force. People would still frequent the site but most do not take it seriously anymore and it is good for a few laughs at its best. I think that this might be a Leviathan in itself as those who post will write outlandish things just to amuse their friends. As you mentioned the anonymous nature of the website is instrumental in the rampant flaming on juicy campus.
Good analysis!
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