Yik Yak Causes Flak

A social networking aplication that has taken college campuses by storm this month has recently gained popularity at Dickinson, despite mixed reactions.

First launched three months ago by two Furman University students, Yik Yak was designed to serve as “a virtual bulletin board” for students on college campuses by using GPS technology to generate a live-feed Internet chat room for users within a five-mile radius. Yik Yak posts are limited to 200 characters, but what differentiates the app from most others is its anonymity factor. Because people can post anything anonymously without the worry of being directly confronted about their words, some complain that the app enables cruel and inappropriate content to be posted by creating a public forum without user accountability.

Since the app surged in popularity at Dickinson, it has gotten mixed reviews from students.

“It’s a great time-waster, and really addictive,” said Ian Ravin ’16.

“It’s a unique form of entertainment,” said Ashley Carroll ’17. It makes my days more interesting and lets me know what people at Dickinson are talking about.”

There are examples of students using the app for the social good. Posts like “We should pick a night like tonight where it’s warm and not raining to have a school wide campout on the academic quad,” and “WARM COOKIES IN THE CAF,” allow students to suggest inclusive activities and inform other users about campus events. Some posts even compliment specific people.

Even so, the app’s promise of anonymity for its users has some garnered criticism. Brooks Buffington, co-founder of the app, said “with anonymity comes responsibility, and college students have the maturity that it takes to handle those responsibilities”.

According to some Dickinson students, however, this view sets an idealistic and unrealistic expectation of how many real college students act when given the privilege of anonymity.

“[Yik Yak] gives students the opportunity to be mean anonymously,” said Sarah Zimmer ’17.

In a Facebook post, Joel Prushan ’16 gave a specific example of bullying on Yik Yak from the Dickinson area.

“One group of posts specifically target those that do not pay full tuition (approx. 60 [percent] of campus),” Prushan wrote. “These posts by ‘full paying’ students frequently make fun of ‘non-full paying’ students and use their family’s wealth as a reason to drink, smoke and not go to class.”

Lauren Jeschke ’14 expressed disapproval of the app and those who use it at Dickinson.

“I think it is disgusting, sad and frustrating that such a prestigious college is so willingly participating in this,” said Jeschke.

There are many ‘yaks’ that mention specific Dickinson students, faculty and staff by name, and portray specific people in an unfavorable light. These posts often appear among the most up-voted on our campus.

“Not every post is mean, but quite a number of them are,” said Taylor Lezhan ’17. “This makes me question the maturity level in young adults today, especially [those who] post about specific people.”

Yik Yak can also be home to a significant amount of profanity and inappropriate content. On a Thursday night at Dickinson, eighteen of the 100 most popular posts (which are compiled under the ‘hot’ category) mentioned drugs or alcohol, while an additional thirty mentioned sex or described body parts in a sexual manner. Thus, out of a hundred popular yaks within five miles of our campus, almost 50 percent were sexual and/or drug-related.

The creators of Yik Yak have made modifications to the app to try to prevent user abuses. For example, a post can be removed if it mentions someone’s full name or if it gets a certain number of down-votes, and all posts disappear after a certain period of time.

According to Joyce Bylander, Vice President for Student Development, the Office of Student Development has already received complaints from students about malicious or defamatory posts on Yik Yak. Bylander also said that Yik Yak is not the first app of its kind to come to campus.

“There’s been a series of these kinds of anonymous apps that get connected to the campus and allow people to be uncivil and mean to people,” said Bylander. “I think it’s cowardice”.

Bylander also said that administrators have limited control over activity on social media sites, and depend on students to exercise mature judgement online.

“[Apps such as Yik Yak] are not run by the college, and in most cases when they have come up we just ignore them,” said Bylander. “The people who need to curtail [these apps] are Dickinson students.”

According to Diana Graber, Cyber Certified co-founder of M.A. Media Psychology, Yik Yak has been able to use the technology to map “nearly 85 percent of the U.S. High School population” (to ensure that users are 17 and up) and is capable of shutting down the app in specific locations (including college campuses) if large-scale problems arise. Only time will tell whether these changes will be enough to keep Yik Yak around long-term.