All it took was an idea, a little bit of initiative and a few clicks of a mouse for several Portage High School students to make a positive impact on their classmates. A Twitter account and two Facebook pages that allow students to anonymously send in compliments about their classmates have been created in order to spread a sense of united positivity and make people feel good.
One of the Facebook pages, “Portage High School Compliments,” has reached over 600 likes in less than three days. Two sophomore girls, who asked to remain anonymous in order to make this project about “everyone and not just us two,” started the page after noticing that Chesterton High School had one and thought that PHS could use the positivity.
The concept has taken off among students, who welcome the opportunity to make someone else’s day through the power of social media.
“They are all tweeting and instagramming the compliments that people have said about them saying it has made their day, made them smile or even tear up,” the page operators said. “It has affected everyone.”
The page operators said they are trying to spread the message that PHS should not be known for negative occurrences considering some of the great people that attend the school. The number of positive comments submitted has been overwhelming.
“We are extremely happy with how it turned out,” they said. “We started with writing a couple of compliments then the compliments just came pouring in. We logged off for two minutes, came back and there was over 25 message of people writing such good things about each other. It made us really happy to see that.”
The other Facebook page, “PHS Compliments,” was started on Nov. 29 by senior Vanessa Benak. She also decided to bring the compliments page to PHS after seeing a similar one for Chesterton High School.
“From what I’ve seen on my news feed, people seem to be really positive about the whole thing,” Benak said. “I’m trying to spread a positive impact on the student body of PHS.”
There is also a Twitter account (@ComplimentsPhs) based on the same premise, focusing on people’s positive attributes and making them feel good. The three social media pages give PHS students multiple places to express their gratitude for each other.
“More and more people are talking about it, and it’s only been a few days,” Benak said. “Making others feel good about themselves makes me feel like a good person.”
Click here for the Portage High School Compliments Facebook page!