on frape.

Why Fraping should be punishable by law:
A serious hard-hitting piece about the social implications of the "Fraping" trend that really lifts the lid on youth culture and pokes about inside a bit.
By Nazareth Gayle




We have all, on occasion, left our laptops unattended, unwisely failed to log out on a communal computer or even, cretins that we are, let a friend use our laptop without feeling the need to stand over them the entire time like some Orwellian screen Nazi. And as a reward for our optimistic outlook on human nature we are gifted with... The Frape. Now, i am not going to deny that often these Frapes are full to the brim with hilariousness, because they are. I have a pretty basic sense of humour so a standard: “I don’t wipe after I poo” Frape, is often enough to leave me in stitches. Or if you are a more subtle sort of chap or chapette: changing someone’s birthday to the day after so that they receive post after post of belated birthday wishes is satisfying on many levels. But what is the real cost of these flights of fancy?
as students we have more time than your average bottom feeder in which to concoct these schemes with the motive, opportunity and dearth of anything even resembling a moral compass to make them truly imaginative. This is particularly true for arts students, who it can be argued at least have the excuse of too much time on their hands and the need to distract themselves from too few job prospects on the horizon. Not that other students are exempt: one of the most twisted, Machiavellian Frapes i have witnessed was by, of all things, a scientist: 
This person took time out for her life to find a ten week foetal scan and upload it to her unsuspecting flatmate’s Facebook pictures with a caption that said something along the lines of: “I know this wasn’t the plan but i am going to make the best of it i just hope that you will stand by me during this horrible, horrible mistake”. I think there may also have been some reference to a “coat hanger solution” but don’t quote me on that. Maybe as a prank this is a bit near the knuckle but it is a JOKE and providing you are aware it is a joke, there really are no problems but you know who do not as a rule tend to understand things like these are intended as JOKES? 
Parents. 
The very "best" Frapes are obviously those that are not at first glance recognisably Frapes so the genius of this one was in picking a person about whom it could quite easily be believed after which it is merely a question of waitting, sitting back as a barrage of comments of support from friends and condemnation from relatives roll in. Frape turns friend against friend, brother against brother and my news feed into a warzone filled with frape and counter-frape until i am not sure what to believe. i don't think it is too strong to say that Frape is at best defamation of character and at worst a form of identity theft as Facebook has in a very real way become an extension of the self. I know that the only reason i get out of bed most days is so i have something to inform Facebook of, i also i know it is not just me as all my friends liked my status when I mentioned it.
My fear is of a world where we can no longer believe the other glowing box in the corner: The one attached to all the nice pictures of cats sleeping, pandas sneezing, fat people falling of tables and of course the porn. My relationship with the flickering bitch in my living-room ended because i found i couldn’t trust it, it lied to me. Constantly. I invested time, love and attention and it repaid me with gloom, despair and Jeremy Kyle. When i turned to the internet it was on understanding that i would no longer have to use judgment and discrimination i am not interested in questioning things and am too lazy to be constantly suspicious of the information it gives me: “Emma Brown liked Family Guy.” Did she? Did she really? Or is this some more of your vicious liar-words? 

Politically i am ambivalent, morally i am undecided and religiously i am disinterested but when it comes to something i really care about, i am all about swift and brutal justice. Far too often for my liking culprits go unpunished, lies go unchallenged and people’s relationship statues are left ambiguous! This is something i will not stand for. So i propose that Fraping should be punishable by law. How would this work? i hear you ask, i don’t know i reply. i possibly should have thought it through before i started writing this but i am a lazy optimist: i began with the vauge hope that this bit would somehow work itself out by the time i got to the end but it hasn't. 
My, isnt this awkward.