One word: addictive.  

One minute you’re happily scrolling through the endless posts of #relatable content, and the next you’re suddenly entangled in the dizzying abyss of student life complaints, with an aching thumb and the title of ‘top fan’ attached to your username. But you’ve already gone too far.  

It’s the tiny seed that flourishes into the majestic tree of procrastination. Forget that formative due next week, forget that 9am tomorrow; thumbing through the ceaseless pit of hilarious confessions and unpopular opinions supersedes the need for a good night sleep or a first class degree. We might be sleep-deprived and overworked, but at least that £9,250 tuition fee has given us the amusement of a compellingly entertaining Facebook page. 

Here’s a #Durfess for you: that page is one of the only reasons any of us Durham university students log on to the prehistoric landscape of Facebook (and for Tindur of course, but we’ll save that can of worms for another day). Why else would we risk subjecting ourselves to embarrassing status posts about your uncle’s support for the Brexit party, or your mum’s new favourite Pinterest quotes? No, we don’t want to see pictures of cousin Amy’s new born baby or your stepbrother’s wedding, we want to hear about everyone’s frustration with Palatinalps, or the significantly important definitive ranking of InterCollege relationships.  

We’ve all seen -and been- that person relieving lecture boredom by entering into the eternal realm of Durfess scrolling. It offers us a small window of alleviation from the monotony of student life; a sense that we are not alone in our seemingly infinite state of procrastination. It’s both immature and viciously addictive. As grown-ups and independent adults, we shouldn’t find pleasure in these petty confessions about freshers being sharked or someone unironically having a TikTok account. Alas, our brains have degenerated into a state of finding pleasure in things lower than even the primitive state of intellect: but that’s just what university seems to do to people. 

It’s a space where students criticise one another and bond simultaneously. Slow walkers watch out. Fans of beans on toast prepare to defend what you cherish. Puffer jacket wearing girls get ready to be judged. Nobody is safe, but nobody can get enough of it.  

Thank you Durfess for making our student experience complete; you’re one of the only things making all this debt worth it.