The World of Spill Your Guts – A College's Anonymous Confessional
Roan Church | March 21, 2024
A controversial Instagram account has been on almost everyone's radar these last few weeks, bringing with it a wash of contentious opinions. Created roughly a month ago, the wwc_spillyourguts account began taking submissions openly from the study body of Warren Wilson College (WWC).
Barely a few weeks had gone by before the account halted all posting. Eventually, the account was shut down and wiped from Instagram entirely.
For many WWC students, the original wwc_spillyourguts account popped up on Instagram’s “recently followed you” page, catching most off guard.
wwc_spillyourguts was a place where an anonymous student could post their thoughts and opinions through a Google form, submitted directly to the account owner. However, this communal confession box was short-lived due to the anonymous forms being spammed with distasteful comments; the person or persons who ran the account soon stopped posting due to feeling uncomfortable about the comments being made.
This idea is not uncommon, typically bringing this anonymous power to a school community.
Every day, the account administrator or administrators select and publish contributions brought forth by students, bringing the rumors circulating the campus to life. Some are seemingly harmless, such as crush confessions and shout-outs of fellow students, but can quickly delve into toxic territory — where racist comments or ableist claims are published. However, as we have seen over the past few weeks, this idea has turned from a fun, engaging community-driven practice to a controversial and, at times, venomous space.
Only a week after the account went radio silent did it cease to exist, as the account got deleted permanently. However, this was not the end of the Spill Your Guts lineage. A new account has been created, the predecessor to the original Spill Your Guts account, and has taken over where the original account has left off.
At first glance, Spill Your Guts 2 appears innocuous, its profile boasting a common WWC squirrel and its bio inviting students to submit thoughts and ideas and promising to be "unfiltered."
Spill Your Guts 2 was, in fact, more unfiltered than the first one which led to grotesque rumors and increasingly vulgar submissions; students in the crossfire not knowing what is truthful and what is made up.
However, this anonymity breeds lies and crass behavior. Spill Your Guts 2 is a double-edged sword.
The account’s anonymous nature encourages the weaponization of gossip and misinformation in the pursuit of infamy and scandal. False accusations, character assassinations, and malicious rumors poison the well of trust and breed a culture of deceit within WWC.
It has been one week since the last Spill Your Guts 2 published a rumor on Instagram and it is unknown if it will be back anytime soon or not.
In this digital age where anonymity is highly valued, WWC Spill Your Guts 2 leaves students with a bad taste in their mouths. It stands solely to perpetuate drama and defamation. When this level of anonymity is granted with no repercussions, it can lead to untruthful points staged as truth, driving apart the supportive community of WWC.
While a forum for an interlocked community can be fun and strengthen this bond it can also diminish and hurt this link we might share. The next time you’re looking to shout a friend out, take it to their messages, or let them know in person just how much they mean to you. And if you’re someone looking to escalate rumors — remember WWC isn’t your Riverdale. We are not here for a Gossip Girl reboot. So let us keep the drama on Netflix and our friendships clean of Spill Your Guts theatrics.