Facebook, texting, e-mail, twitter, online gossiping profiles, blogs are all new ways to interact with people. Meanwhile, many users are forgetting the consequences of making rude remarks. Teenagers find that it is much easier to make slanderous comments or threaten someone through sites and applications like AIM, rather than expressing their true thoughts to their face. The internet has become an overly used forum to spread news and events. Consequently, it has created an atmosphere conducive to being more impersonal. Websites such as Miami Vice are also used to post comments about people. There has also been an onset of Facebook profiles dedicated to dishing the dirt on students. Although these profiles have been shut down, they would have kept on publicizing gossip if they had not been reported. Gossip is inevitable; As long as scandalous events are occurring, there will be gossip. But, creating an online profile that is committed to dishing the dirt on students has taken the whole concept too far. It is easier than ever to friend request "Betty Sue" and read about every new couple, event, and general nonsense happening at school. But, online gossip has been going on ever since the Internet was created, commonly known as "online bullying".

It is possible that Betty Sue or any other similar profiles received their inspiration from the popular television show, Gossip Girl. Before the show, people may have thought about creating gossip web pages but never followed through. Since the airing of the show, it has become more socially acceptable to start these profiles. But despite this, these profiles still offend people as much as they would before the show started. Unlike the show, this is reality and real people’s emotions that they are offending cannot easily be re-written into a happy ending.

Sophomore Chloe Koplin, who has been mentioned in many Betty Sue posts, says, "I think this person was just inspired by the television show and is a little harsh with certain remarks."

During an interview with Betty Sue, when asked if she was inspired in any way by Gossip Girl she responded, "It makes it a little more acceptable, but Betty Sue (she speaks in third person) doesn’t revolve around gossip. Its main purpose is to say the stuff that everyone is too scared to say."

Many theories have been made to reveal Betty Sue and Gab Goss’s identities. Lots of names come up, but whoever it is, is obviously pain bored with their own life. Making an online profile to indirectly hurt a persons feeling is the obvious indicator that someone really has nothing going on in their life worth thinking about.

Bullying used to be a problem specific to face-to-face encounters. Now it has spread due to technological advances such as Internet and AIM. People can now insult and harass people anonymously over the Internet, never having to reveal their identity.

Sophomore, Julie Somoano, was "cyber bullied" about three months ago, "basically, when the ‘bullying’ took place, I’d been dating this guy at the time, and his ex-girlfriend contacted me over AIM and threatened to smash my head into a concrete wall among other things."

Whether the person takes it personally or not, online bullying adds to the fact that America is becoming a more and more hostile place to live in. Now, not only can you be threatened face-to-face, but people can hurt your feelings anywhere via texting and Facebook. People should ask themselves this question before they send hurtful messages over the web: Would I be able to say this to the person’s face? If not, then it is probably not the best idea to send a letter with malicious intent over the web.