Slam book
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Slam Books are traditionally spiral-bound notebooks passed among Junior high school students who add comments, often anonymously. Nowadays they are often on the internet and are now made and edited by high school students as well as junior high students. Around since at least the 1940s, slam books typically list one person, topic or question per page, and several readers write their comments, which are often harsh and slam the person listed. Questions focus on the group's social structure, teachers and fads, such as, who is most popular or worst dressed, or whether they like/dislike a specific teacher, administrator or celebrity. Many internet based slam book sites exist.
Slam books are so-called because they:
- "slam" students and teachers
- are slammed shut when teachers are nearby
Most popular among teens and young adolescents, slam books are notorious (and thus intriguing) for insulting and humiliating their subjects, which is why schools have banned them.[citation needed]
Other slam books, however, aren't mean-spirited or designed to humiliate, and include gentler, tamer questions, such as, "What pet would you like to have?" or, "What's your favorite movie?"
Though traditional slam books are passed in the hallway among students in their peer group or clique, online slam books are becoming global. The owner signs up and send around a virtual notebook, whether within their continent or internationally, and once completed, it returns to the original author, full of comments.
An interesting example of an elaborate "slam book" is portrayed in the movie Mean Girls. This book, called the "Burn Book" is used by several of the main characters and then is publicized throughout the school to create school-wide chaos.
