Formspring is a website where people ask random anonymous questions to other

users. According to Formspring’s official site, it currently has over 20 million accounts and 3.5 million unique visitors every day. Formspring can also be accessed on the world’s leading social network, Facebook. The main problems with Formspring is that many users aren’t asking questions like, “What’s your favorite movie?” but instead are writing insults.

According to Urban Dictionary, Formspring is “a website for cowards who are afraid to say stuff to people face to face so they find comfort in talking crap behind the anonymity the site provides.”

Though not intended to become a place to bully others, that is exactly how Formspring has evolved.

            According to The Chronicle, the main users of Formspring are teenagers, mainly those in high school. If high school isn’t a place for insecurities to shine enough, Formspring flaunts them. The risks of this website are not unknown. So why do students still use Formspring?

            “I created a Formspring when I was bored. I like Formspring because of people’s honesty,” said sophomore Meghan Stokes.

            The psychology behind Formspring users is quite interesting. Many users on Facebook only keep checking the site for one reason: the notifications. The more users interact with the Facebook network, the more notifications they’ll get. Formspring can create a similar anxiety for feedback. Users constantly check back for questions and the askers want their answers as soon as possible. Formspring creates a stimulating feeling that makes it addictive.

“Giving my secrets away was like an adrenaline rush. It’s really fun to answer questions,” says sophomore Kaitlyn Makers.

Teenagers are asking their peers mean-spirited and questions about sex to test the boundaries. It’s clear that staying tough if part of this game and showing weakness is the equivalent of striking out. Strike one, ignoring mean posts by not responding. Strike two, deleting the Formspring account. Strike three can go to the most extreme. Just last year, 17 year old Alexis Pilkington, a high school student in Long Island committed suicide after being harassed on Formspring, said Long Island police in an interview for the Huffington Post.

            “I just tell people to go away when they say something rude on my Formspring. I don’t really care what people say I just don’t want that stuff on my profile,” said sophomore Morgan Maher.

Deleting a Formspring account or not responding to crass comments should be considered a strong action. No one should feel attacked on Formspring or on any place on the Internet. The best way to prevent cyber bullying is to not open an account at all. No comment or question is worth the lack of self esteem that Formspring can create.

“I deleted my Formspring after I saw the mean things people were writing on others’ profiles. Formspring was fun at first when it was just answering questions, but then it got rude. I didn’t like that,” said Ali Guerra.

Formspring creators have noticed the mean nature of users on their website and are in the works of preventing cyber bullying on their site. In early March, Formspring announced it’s partnering with MIT’s Media Lab to develop detection tools for finding “problematic content.” This will essentially block mean comments from questioners before the answerer can even read it.