I AM always amused whenever I come across confessions anonymously written by people on Facebook.
It's hard to refrain from reading them as they crop up every day. Most confessions are on marriage and relationships.
The people who make them seek netizens' advice and opinion on the delicate, knotty situations they are in.
Since they are anonymous, thousands of remarks flood the comment section, many of them derogatory and humiliating.
I have come to learn the confessions, statements acknowledging personal facts that someone would prefer not to be shared under one's identity, are sent to the administrators of pages through online forms like Google Forms or submission portals created with purpose-built tools.
People anonymously send in confessions and secrets to express anger and disappointment with their spouses over issues in their marriage. It is funny that they seek netizens' advice rather than meet marriage counsellors.
I came across a post where a woman complained about her husband who she said was like a slave master who forces her to do household chores.
She said her mother-in-law tells her to be subservient to her son, as he was the breadwinner of the family, even though this woman has a career, too.
One man sought advice on how to deal with his wife who threw away food his visiting mother cooked for him.
Another man said his wife, a high-income earner, contributed very little to household expenses, but spent a lot on clothes, shoes and makeup.
Another woman suspected that her husband had a lover after finding lingerie in the spare tyre compartment of their car. Afraid to confront the allegedly abusive husband, she sought netizens' advice on how to leave him.
You can imagine the barrage of remarks, mostly hidden behind fake names, in the comments' section. This sparks arguments.
I suspect some of the confessions are made up so that these pages get more readership.
I believe revenue can be generated through guerilla advertising campaigns on these confession pages.
In one case, a man confessed that he stumbled on his wife having lunch with another man, who he saw wiping his wife's lips with a handkerchief embroidered with her name.
The wife unintentionally left the handkerchief on the dining table and the husband took it. He promised readers there would be a big showdown with his wife.
This story is surely too juicy to be true.
Looking further, I found a link to an online product that the man promoted.
Unsuspecting readers would believe the story. It is a guerilla ad campaign for a product, creating drama to appeal to people's emotions.
This is disturbing and borderline creepy, but sickeningly entertaining. I believe there are some genuine confessions.
Some people write in when they can't cope with depression. They feel comfortable sharing their feelings due to the anonymity.
They believe they have a broad audience to seek advice from, including people who had similar experiences. Commenters serve as a support system for the confession-maker to cope with mental issues.
But really, with so many weirdos online, do people really believe netizens can help them with mental issues? They have a better chance of help talking to a professional.
It is difficult to find public websites without negative content.
In many instances, cyberbullying is rampant on these confession pages as bullies can post vicious remarks without using their real name.
It is so brutal. These cyberbullies inflict pain on confession-makers with degrading remarks and make them feel bad about themselves.
It is not easy though for the authorities or social media sites to shut down these confession pages. Even if a page is shut down, another can easily be created and netizens will flock to it like flies.
Perhaps the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission can look into this and advise administrators of confession pages to tone it down.
The writer, a former NST journalist, is a film scriptwriter whose penchant is finding new food haunts
