College kids are still kids, and undeniably so. We are infatuated with all of the things that received our obsessive attention in middle school: who has a crush on who, who the cool kids are and who fell down at recess. We still complain — about teachers, homework and waking up on Monday mornings.

Only now, our cliques are labeled with Greek letters, and whispers float between satellites instead of over a lunch table.

Sidechat — the digital tool that facilitates USC’s never-ending gossip stream — is an anonymous online forum that restricts itself to university students. On the platform, users can share text, photos and videos for other users to comment on, upvote or downvote, in a style akin to Reddit.

While students might dismiss Sidechat as unserious due to the anonymous and often comedic nature of posts, Sidechat — both the platform and the content posted on it — affects students’ perceptions and behaviors daily. 

Posts mostly fall into three main categories: memes about campus life, Greek life rankings and reactions, and memes about Greek life. At first glance, these posts might seem like inside jokes, but in practice, Sidechat has kind of become an informal Greek life press office — broadcasting rankings, narratives and reputations before most first-years ever set foot on the Row.

“I’ll be at [football] games, and people will be posting about where to find after[-parties]. That’s actually where they’ll get their information,” said Audrey Draper, a freshman majoring in the business of cinematic arts. 

For many new students, Sidechat isn’t just background noise — it’s a map of campus power. Posts don’t simply relay where things are happening; they shape what’s worth caring about and who holds social weight. By the time students arrive, the narrative has already been written.

“I also think in terms of the frat rankings. When I first got here, I obviously didn’t really know anything about the frats. … So that was kind of my first understanding of what all of the differences and vibes were between them,” Draper said. 

Draper’s experience isn’t unique — it shows how Sidechat acts as an onboarding manual to campus power structures. Often, these social hierarchies can be defined by negative stereotypes, and can lead to targeted individuals feeling attacked. 

Sidechat’s darker side effects coming to light is a trend seen not just at USC, but at institutions across the country. 

Columnist Isabella Glassman of The Daily Pennsylvanian wrote about the negative effects of Sidechat on Greek life at the University of Pennsylvania in her article “Sidechat or Greekrank 2.0?,” writing that the “anonymity of the app had provided a space to degrade women and men based on superficial characteristics.”

Similar articles debating Sidechat’s impact on Greek life and campus gossip have been published by student publications based at Northeastern University and Cornell, among others. 

Furthermore, a new fold in the issue emerges in the form of “self-posting,” when a member of a Greek life organization pretends to be either an unaffiliated bystander or a member of a different organization and makes a post uplifting their own fraternity or sorority. 

“It didn’t even kind of come to my mind that self-posting was a thing … now, I’m totally skeptical. … If it has the word ‘girly’ in it, I’m like, ‘self-post!’” Draper said. 

Self-posts making up an unknown portion of the content on Sidechat simply makes the general body of information on the platform more unreliable. The line between perception and propaganda gets blurred — and that’s by design.

Arguments can also be made for Sidechat having benefits. After all, relatable humor can create a sense of connection. In terms of Greek life, Sidechat undeniably does bring visibility to an area of campus life that can be known for secrecy. 

As such, one might argue that Greek life organizations, and even people who simply attend their events, might have more incentive to prioritize safety, for example, for fear of backlash on Sidechat otherwise, where a single post can spiral into reputational damage, social stigma or campus-wide scrutiny overnight. 

“The vibe that I get is a little bit like a panopticon. … I’ve been at frat parties and had the experience of someone being like, ‘Oh, you’re gonna get … sniped on Sidechat if you do something,’” Draper said. 

This “panopticon” effect is crucial — it turns Sidechat from passive commentary into active surveillance. People change how they behave because they assume someone might post it.

Sidechat, like most social media platforms wielded by our generation, can be a double-edged sword, with the only effective measure of controlling its downsides being continued discourse regarding its effects.

The important point to realize is that we can’t talk about it seriously unless we first establish that students do actually form real opinions and make decisions based on what they see on the app — which is proven by countless complaints from campuses country-wide and perspectives from USC students like Draper. 

We all laugh at Sidechat, but it is far more than a joke.