“Oh my God, please don’t tell me I’m on FU_Makeouts!” is an exclamation I’ve heard at least five times every weekend since school began. After a night out on Arthur, Fordham students no longer panic about who, when or where they hooked up with a fellow Ram, but instead wake up fearing where their late night smooch would be virtually documented.
Boasting 781 followers, the FU_Makeouts Twitter account asks people to photograph pictures of their friends, foes or unfamiliar Fordhamites while drunkenly hooking up with another student (or sometimes local Bronx residents). To “embarass your friends,” as the account bio describes, FU_Makeouts will post each lip-locked picture to their page, where both followers and non-followers can either laugh or cringe (sometimes both).
Taylor Fields, FCRH ’14, does neither, but is rather perplexed by the account. “I’m a big fan, but one downside is that you really never can tell who the two people making out are, so it’s really a pointless endeavor to even look at the photos…but people still do.”
While some Fordham students will send their pictures into the FU_Makeouts email provided in the bio, other students shamelessly tweet a picture of their friends hooking up through their own Twitter account, tagging FU_Makeouts. Some find this stunt harmless and hilarious, while others are less than amused.
Krissy Buongiorno , a GSB ’14 student, supports the Twitter account. “I think in this day and age, it’s the price you pay when you get ham and lick someone’s face in a college bar. Would I hate it if I was up there? Yeah, but sh*t happens,” said Krissy. “Keep it going. It’s entertaining.”
Amy Snopek, FCRH ’14, also agrees. “I think the FU_Makeouts account is all in good fun. It doesn’t tag people, and most of the time you can’t see their faces,” she said. “Social media is all about freedom of speech and freedom to post. There is something to be said about laughing at yourself the next morning and not being self conscious about that kind of thing.”
While I agree and am usually one to laugh anything off, I fear for those that are incapable of such humor. Social media has begun to permeate and expose every crack and crevice of our daily lives (even without our consent), and some students could fear their careers may be jeopardized if a future employer were to ever see their sloppiness on FU_Makeouts.
What frightens me the most, though, is that social media is now preventing us from engaging in activities we may have thoroughly enjoyed prior to our new, over-sharing culture. Some students don’t care whether a picture of them participating in illegal activity or acting promiscuously in public is posted on a social media site. Other students, however, may refrain from such activities in fear of a friend, family member, future employer or even law authorities stumbling upon the snapshot.
A friend of mine (name withheld for her privacy) told me, “I was hooking up with this guy at Howl the other weekend, and all I could think about was whether our picture would show up on FU_Makeouts the next day. I couldn’t even enjoy it!”
Another Fordham student, Ali Sorrento, FCRH ’14, would prefer for the account to be deleted. Sorrento said, “I don’t like FU_Makeouts because I think it’s immoral. By uploading pictures of two people hooking up onto the Internet, you are basically making an intimate moment into a complete joke.”
While it’s fun to laugh at the drunken mistakes many Fordham students make each weekend at Tri-Bar, I doubt you’ll be the one cracking up when your sloppy smacking is published for all to witness.
What do y’all think? Is FU_Makeouts cruel or kind of hilarious?
Image courtesy of FU_Makeouts