Many college students have experienced drunken nights when they do something embarrassing and wouldn’t want anyone to capture that moment.
Faded, an app created by JumpCam, allows students who attend Chico State or the University of Arizona to post pictures or videos of themselves or other individuals getting “faded,” whatever that may mean.
Similar to Instagram and Snapchat, Faded is a social network that allows its users to create a story with images. Individual pictures, which are called “fades,” will disappear after 24 hours. Voting with the up or down buttons can have an impact on the lifespan of the photo.
Users are allowed to post as many fades as they want and have the option to make one anonymous fade per day.
This is when I believe Faded becomes a big issue. Students are allowed to post anonymous pictures of anyone and anything they wish.
After downloading the app, I realized that this usually results in pictures of individuals passed out drunk or doing drugs before and even during class being uploaded. For example, one of the first images that showed up on my feed was a student doing a line of cocaine off his watch during class.
While most Chico State students are excited to download this app to see what their peers do in their free time, I can’t help but feel disgusted. Sure, college is a time for young adults to have fun and experiment, but sharing embarrassing photos of that tequila night or associating drug use with our university is a completely different story.
How do these people expect to receive respect as a student representing Chico State or the University of Arizona when they can’t respect themselves?
Faded targets students whose lives revolve around partying, and choosing schools that already have a party school reputation allows students to prove why they hold that title.
The things people do with their free time should stay private. Despite the fact that the app is currently marketed to these two schools, anyone with a smartphone can download it. It turns out that their slogan, “sharing secrets with friends,” really means sharing secrets with anyone that can download an app.
Veronica De La Cruz can be reached at [email protected] or @Veronica_dlc on Twitter.
