Class confessions: restorative properties in online experiences of socioeconomic stigma

摘要

Since modern society provides more opportunities for those with college and university degrees, the number of applications to most prestigious colleges and universities has risen. It is due to the premise that education from elite universities guarantees better social and job opportunities, putting pressure on those who are outside of high-income and higher-class social groups. Many elite universities increase the number of applications in order to ensure the best applicants into their incoming class. However, elite universities as traditional institutions are not well prepared for first-generation, minority, or low-income students, and we can find various types of inequality in an elite social institution, creating new forms of socioeconomic stigma. Thus, students found a platform that helps them overcome problems produced by socioeconomic stigma: Class Confessions, which is deployed through new information technology and social media as a tool for spreading personal and private problems, attitudes, and opinions of students with socioeconomic stigma.