The negative effects of social media rocked Lasell College campus last week with the “Lasell_Hot_Or_Not” Instagram account. Photos were posted of students with captions judging if they were “hot” or “not” by the creator of the page (who remains unknown to most of the campus). Students were outraged by this, most becoming aware after one student posted pictures of the account on the Facebook class pages.
Sam Buote, Lasell student, RA and Laser Link Orientation leader, tried to bring a stop to this account by posting it on each Lasell class Facebook page. She commented on the situation, “A friend of mine actually showed it to me, and I was immediately furious. It made me so mad that anyone would think it would be okay to post other people’s photos without their permission let alone label them “hot or not”. As an RA my first reaction was to go talk to someone in residential life to see if there was anything we could do about and Peter Wiernicki told me that the best way to fight back at this time would be to bring the students together. That was when I decided to post in the Facebook groups, because I know that would be the best way to reach most of our students. I really believe that Lasell has a strong sense of community and it hurt me that someone within our community thought that was okay, because it really wasn’t. Ultimately I’m glad the page didn’t last long.”
The account was taken down after only a few days due to the recognition and response to it. There have been reports that the account still exists, but the name was changed and all of the pictures taken down.
Although the situation started out so negatively, the Lasell community has shown they are bigger than this. Sophomore Angela Connolly commented on the situation saying that the account was “absolutely ridiculous” and is “bad for the school’s morale.” Between Buote’s initiative in making people aware about the page to the disgusted response from students, Lasell rose above. The students showed that any type of bullying will not be tolerated at the school and the students are above it. Buote ended her comment by adding, “I also must say, I’m honored that you would reach out to me about this. I in no way ever made those posts for attention, but the positive feedback I’ve gotten from so many people only reaffirms my belief that Lasell has such an amazing community.”