Launched in 2013 Yik Yak is a social media app where users can anonymously post and comment on threads from within a five-mile radius. When it comes to Yik Yak’s impact on campus culture, there are varied opinions from Longwood students and a professor on the app’s positive and negative effects. The people I interviewed are anonymous when giving their opinions.
The first student I interviewed stated “Yik Yak is a great way to get advice, find friends, or to find a good place to chill and blow off steam. It causes people like me, who have social anxiety, to get out of their comfort zone and to have conversations with people. After my boyfriend dumped me recently, I posted on Yik Yak looking for advice on how to not have a mental breakdown during class and I got wonderful advice. On the other hand, it can be the source of where to find parties and sometimes places to get drugs or places who do not card.”
The second student I interviewed discussed a couple of positive sides to using the app but mostly elaborated on the negative sides. She stated “Something good that I have seen on this app is people answering other users' questions about things to do in Farmville or helping when people have questions about classes, and organizations. However, the app can be bad when rumors or hurtful comments are spread about others. So I would probably say it has more of a bad impact than good impact on a college campus where everyone knows each other, and rumors could really hurt people. Another thing is that a couple other things that I have seen are people spreading lies on the app about things that never really happened. For example, a person started a lie that someone had gotten seriously injured in my building, which had everyone scared but it all turned out to be made up and none of it was true.”
The last student I interviewed stated “ If you ever need help with anything or just some words of encouragement, this app is a good source to go too. I see that many of the students using the app support our athletic teams, especially the men's basketball team. They encourage students to come out to games and even come up with themes for the student body. Another good example I saw on Yik Yak was how students tell us about how the food at different dining locations across campus are, saving us precious time that could be dedicated to schoolwork. Moreover, there is a slight amount of drama that gets started on Yik Yak at times.”
Finally, I interviewed a professor who was familiar with the app through his students. He stated “I know a number of my students are on the app, it gives them an opportunity to build connections and vent about things. The downside is that there has been two situations with a student being outed by his full name for an accused sexual assault case. He has not gone through trial yet, so there’s a victim out there and a potential criminal, but I still believe you have a right to innocence until proven guilty. It’s hard to deal with these situations, especially since we live in a small community, where they use his full name, and then everybody knows about it. The second situation is with a student I have that is not friends with the potential criminal and his
name was put on Yik Yak claiming he and that other guy are cool. He was quite upset about it because he’s not friends with him and does not want to condone that behavior. I just believe there is a lot of harm caused when using Yik Yak, that impacts other people in the process.”
In conclusion, there are both negative and positive sides to using this app. It has impacted college culture, both by spreading useful information about good food in the area and mental health, and in the way where rumors can spread and cause misunderstandings to happen.
