Spoiler Alert! Hear none, see none, speak none! DePauw students must strategically fight the perilous battles against devastating movie and television show revelations that linger in the trenches of Facebook and Twitter.
Whether it comes through word of mouth or through the spoiler-abundant social media sites, DePauw students are ducking and diving to avoid spoilers every day. It’s true that many could not care less whether or not they know what happens before they watch popular show. But for the pious devotees, who religiously patronize certain shows or sagas, spoilers can be quite upsetting.
“I hate it when people do [spoil],” first-year Jeffery Frimpong said. “I used to watch ‘Catfish’ and sometimes I’d be busy, so I wouldn’t watch it on the day it came out. Then, I’d go on Facebook or Twitter, and people would just ruin the whole episode for me.”
For Frimpong, it’s about undergoing a journey with the characters and experiencing the events of the show. Sophomore Dylan Sheldon agrees.
“I want to watch it for myself,” Sheldon said. “I want to see it for the first time, as opposed to hearing about it.”
Senior Drew Rohm-Ensing didn’t even get the chance to begin watching the hit series “Game of Thrones” before references to plot twists were revealed to him through social media.
“You could tell that something big had happened,” Rohm-Ensing said. “I didn’t get the references at the time, but later it was kind of disappointing because throughout the episode, you’re expecting something big to happen.”
Although spoilers may get a bad rap, some people, including “Game of Thrones” fan sophomore Stephen McMurtry, decide to spoil shows out of excitement instead of ruining the show on purpose.
“The only big TV show I watch is ‘Game of Thrones,’ and I’ve already read the books, so I think it’s actually really funny when people spoil it,” McMurtry said. “I don’t always spoil things but when I’m in the position to spoil, I think it’s kind of funny to do. It’s mean, but it’s funny too.”
Junior Montinique Garner said she is one of those people who spoil shows but she doesn’t spoil with cruel intentions.
“Sometimes I feel like people do it purposely just to rub it in for people who didn’t get to see something,” Garner said. “It’s just because I’m really excited about the show.”
Since we cannot stop friends from spoiling details of episodes on social media websites, there are a few applications on the Internet that could help with blocking these secrets. The Twitter application called Philtro allows users to block spoilers by keywords. The app learns what types of tweets you like based on your rating of thumbs up or thumbs down. When the app becomes familiar with your tweets, it then only notifies users with tweets they would like to read.
Sophomore Mary Xiao and her friends have a special way of finding out the big picture of an episode they like without telling too much.
“My friends and I have an unspoken code that we don’t talk about the big details, but we’ll talk about smaller things,” Xiao said. “That’s nice because afterwards, I can go back and still be surprised.”
Whether you are like Xiao or not, Rohm-Ensing makes it quite simple in what runs through the heads of students who just want to enjoy their favorite show without it being ruined.
“Stay off the computer until you’ve seen the episode,” Rohm-Ensing said. “Avoid social media at all costs.”