A social networking app is growing in presence and has become a major source of news, gossip and updates for many students.
It’s called Yik Yak and is a location-based messaging application similar to Twitter, but with a few key differences that create a more open environment.
Yik Yak users post or “yak,” anonymously. There are no names, photos or links to profiles. Nobody knows who posts what, which makes playing the game more open and less biased.
According to Wojdylo, a social media blog, Yik Yak has become an incredibly popular app by combining social media with a game in which you can accumulate points. “Yakarma” is the point system that up-voting and down-voting affects.
One can gain points when yaks get up-voted and also gain points when the user replies to a yak. These points are not really used for anything though, they mostly show how often the user is on yik yak and how popular the user’s yaks are.
Yak’s that are up-voted more than five times save to the “Me” section at the bottom of the app, according to Wodyjo Social Media. When a yak begins to receive a high number of up-votes, it gets moved to the “Hot” section of the app where it can reach a wider audience. However, no matter how many up-votes a yak gets, it will disappear within three hours of posting.
That is not to say the yak will disappear forever. There is now a Twitter profile, “Best of NCSU Yik Yak,” that pulls and tweets the NCSU yaks with the most up-votes.
Elizabeth Reavis, a sophomore in biological sciences, uses Yik Yak to get updates and see the various thoughts of students she would not normally be able to interact with.
“I get to see the opinions of people I would never see or know about otherwise,” Reavis said.
She also said that Yik Yak has become popular among the student body because it is “an easy and fun way to see what is happening on campus.”
Reavis said that the anonymity of Yik Yak comes with both advantages and disadvantages.
When it comes to Greek life, Yik Yak has become an virtual arena for talking about sororities, fraternities and their individual members.
“People feel more comfortable saying things that are really offensive on Yik Yak,” said Reavis, a member of Sigma Kappa.
For some Greek organizations, the number of students interested in rushing that sorority or fraternity can be affected by the image created for them on Yik Yak.
While more participants in Greek life are downloading the app, some are deleting it for that very reason.
“At first it was a really good way to pass the time in class or while procrastinating on homework, reading all the funny yaks, but I stopped using it when I saw how much Greek life was taking over and I didn’t feel included in the conversation anymore,” said Janelle Ward, a sophomore in business administration.
For students like Ward, the changing environment of the NCSU Yik Yak and the heavy Greek influence took away some of the variety of thought and opinion she previously experienced. She also cited an increase in attacks on individual members of fraternities and especially sororities as a major reason she decided to get rid of her Yik Yak account.
“It was becoming disrespectful to women all over campus, and I was tired of it and deleted it,” Ward said.
But according to Reavis, even though many students see trash-talking and offensive material on the app, it continues to be popular because of its addictive nature and constantly changing news feed.
Justin Patchin, a director of the Cyberbullying Research Center, said he is not surprised by young adults’ attraction to anonymous social media, as it gives them a sense of privacy that we are all concerned with a virtual environment where so many people have access to everything you say or do.
While there are some potential problems concerning bullying with Yik Yak, it has also emerged as a great way for students to communicate and get updates.
According to the app, people will post about events happening on and off-campus, important news and sometimes just funny things going on around them.
Yik Yak is just beginning to be seen around college campuses. It might continue to grow in popularity until it reaches Facebook-sized proportions, it might stay popular on mostly college campuses, or it might simply fade away, like Whisper and many other forms of social media. We’ll see how long the yaks will yak.