In a society where values and norms are force-fed to us, we were raised to know that love-declarations are inappropriate. This has shaped our perceptions until we have become more comfortable in the shadows, than in the light. We enjoy long-distance relationships with people standing in the same room as we are. And we give ourselves the exclusive right to fall in love with strangers, be mad at them, fight with them, then work it out; playing out these scenarios all in our heads.
Despite all that, we get more creative by the minute in finding ways to express such love in all the anonymous ways we can. For it isn’t love that is our sin, but declaration, expression and rejection. College-crushes Facebook pages are the new go-to for lovebirds. They are basically pages that receive anonymous love dedications from students on ask.fm and post them on their page with the name and sometimes even ID Number of the person whom the message is dedicated to. These pages have been there forever, but recently the German University in Cairo’s page has taken off, captivating the internet with its love posts. This university has got some top-quality drama going on!
The Facebook page has more than 50,116 likes and posts on hourly basis. You can find all sorts of messages there. It could be love poems:
It could be weird observations:
or even some girl-on-girl fight over one guy:
Whatever it is, it all falls under the very same anonymous umbrella. Something worth mentioning is that the message-poster mentioning not only the girl’s name but also her college ID number raises some privacy issues, as intensive stalking and incredible effort would be required to for him to know this information.
The idea however, isn’t GUC-oriented but rather culture-oriented. MIU crushes (Misr International University) is another Facebook page with less traffic but equally interesting declarations. It has been serving as a boy-gossip platform for the single girls unable to find anyone that is suitable crush-material.
And as we grew up believing that it is the guy who must approach the girl, and not vice versa, this hub has created a stereotype-free outlet. It has offered shy girls an anonymous shield to hide behind, while they speak their hearts out.
But it’s not necessarily love that needs to be anonymously declared, sometimes it is hate.
And of course, the American University in Cairo has not missed out on the trend. The AUC Crushes Facebook page has taken anonymity to a whole new level. The page has collaborated with an AUC project page called “Date Me”, a project that urges people to “market themselves” and matches them up with others on anonymous basis. All they have to do is open a link, fill information about what they are looking for in a partner, and provide a means for communication. It could be their fake or real account, whatever makes them comfortable.
It is not just this evolution that has been met with such responsiveness. When ask.fm was first introduced in Egypt, it seemed as though no one was interested in identified conversations anymore.
All these different posts, coming from all these different people, are not all that different. For some this is a mere joke, they do it for fun, they make explicit declarations that they can’t afford to utter in real life. For others, this is as close as they can possibly get to falling in love and acting upon it, so they pour their hearts out hoping for someone to read and appreciate. And for others it is just a chance to be loud with zero consideration of what consequences that may bring.
What they all have in common is, they all see the world through a screen. They are all trapped in the dictated rights and wrongs, and so they act accordingly, seizing every chance they get to declare and run. They are all hiding behind that shield, afraid of society, rejection, or their own feelings. So, they substitute the tangible for the imaginary, the real for the fake, the truth for the lies.
One thing we know is true; you can’t find love on a Facebook crushes page. These people are either in love with blue eyes, curvy bodies, fashionista outfits or they are just in love of who they think a stranger is. If there was something true to this, it wouldn’t be on these pages in the first place. So, log out, and go live your life, don’t text it away.