Since its creation on Jan. 5, Longwood Compliments, a Facebook identity where students post compliments about classmates anonymously, has over 700 friends and is growing every day.
Longwood Compliments started small and has spread across the student body rapidly since it's formation. Created by an anonymous member of the Longwood community, it is a Facebook "person" that you can befriend. In Longwood Compliment's "About" section, it reads, "This is made to brighten everyone's day! Spread the word! Compliments about people will be posted daily!"
To post a compliment, you message Longwood Compliments with the name of the person you want to compliment along with the compliment you want to post. Then, Longwood Compliments posts the compliment on the page anonymously.
LC (Longwood Compliments) said, "I got the idea to start this from a high school I heard about that had pretty much the same thing and I thought it was so great so I decided to make one for Longwood. Also, there is just so much bullying and negativity out there and I think people really need to feel positive."
LC got the idea from Virginia Beach's Kellam High School, who has a Facebook page just like ours that lists compliments about students who attend the high school. It was created in late December.
When asked what she thought of Longwood Compliments, Sophomore theater major Katie Bennett said that she thinks the web page is a good thing because there's a lot of anonymous websites where people just say mean things about others. "I think it's good that there's a website where you're saying positive things instead of talking trash."
LC wasn't sure if it was going to catch on very quickly, but was pleasantly surprised. When asked if he or she wanted the movement to get any bigger, he or she said, "I would love to have it grow into a great movement, both at Longwood and other places."
LC has already been contacted by people at other schools asking for advice and permission to make a compliments page at their school. "There is no copyright on kindness so keep it going!"
Since last week, James Madison University created their own "JMU Compliments" page that already has over 200 friends and counting.
Dr. Jennifer Apperson, psychology professor, said that she thought Longwood Compliments was a great concept. "It looks like something good. My only concern is that it's not face to face. But for your generation, who tends to embrace technology mediated interaction, why not? Why not have something that's positive?"
She was also concerned about the potential for "poison" to enter the web page, as in people sending backwards compliments or outright insults. When asked if he or she screens the compliments that the page receives, Longwood Compliments said, "No, fortunately there hasn't been one rude comment yet. I know that the high school that started the idea of this page had some issues with things like that, but there hasn't been any problems yet and hopefully there won't be."
Apperson said that, from a psychological standpoint, the anonymous nature of the compliments posted is neither harmful nor helpful.
When asked about its anonymity, Longwood Compliments said, "Staying anonymous is a lot of fun and I don't want the page to change once people know who I am. I might reveal myself at the end of the semester or something."
Longwood Compliments hopes that people will continue to post on the page and encourages students to take part in this act of kindness. "I hope that this page keeps going throughout the semester and that it continues to brighten everyone's days; also that it may become a tradition throughout the years.
