Yik Yak is the most popular, interactive social media application to arise since Instagram or Twitter. It is also an accurate representation of our generation’s acceptance of disturbing societal norms. In other words, Yik Yak is one of the worst (but most reflective) trends that has ever come to college campuses.
By far, the worst part about Yik Yak is that it is very real. On other social media portals, the user is aware that the audience who follows them knows who they are. You can and will be held accountable for your post. This gives users the opportunity to be selective about their post and what they choose to represent and share with the world. Unlike these other portals, Yik Yak is anonymous, giving cowards the chance to share their true thoughts and values online without being held accountable for anything.
Currently, Yik Yak is trying out their new picture feature. The pictures cannot include faces, illegal activity or inappropriate content. Based on the current post content regarding slut shaming and racism, it is unknown what “acceptable content” is left to submit.
With this update, the app’s creators are undoubtedly inviting cyberbullying into acceptance on college campuses. Small doses of this picture bullying reality can already be seen scrolling through people’s stories on Snapchat. However, this is different and arguably more dangerous, because Yik Yak is local. The faceless subjects may have access to photographs of themselves and the vicious comments that will inevitably follow.
Not to mention, the effects of viral photographs and videos have become more than obvious in recent times, and Yik Yak will be feeding right into this frightening trend.
Yik Yak allows people to see into their nameless peers’ minds and see what they really think. We can access thoughts about people who can be seen right here on campus. People are called out and bullied about their appearances, the clothes they wear, the color of their skin, the Greek letters on their shirts and much more. Yik Yak watches and even goes as far to repost and share some of these thoughts all over the internet.
Not only is Yik Yak an upsetting platform for childish comments and hate speech, the content of the posts are completely unoriginal. Many of the posts are overused comments or phrases taken from Instagram or Twitter. Sometimes the posts are even taken from the popular website Texts From Last Night or another college campus’ Yik Yak.
The Greek life hatred, sexual requests and dark humor become extremely redundant after scrolling through for 10 minutes. There are other posts about people complaining about how much school sucks, including a lot of jokes about terrible the Wi-Fi on campus really is.
Yik Yak has truly earned the bad rap it deserves, despite the thousands of people that use it. This app has potential to spearhead constructive conversations about issues that have been hiding from the spotlight for so long. However, due to the anonymity that keeps an application like this thriving, there is little to no hope that these conversations will ever happen out in the open.
Until the day that cowards put their faces back on and step out from behind their phones, or an application is created that allows people to speak openly and freely about their community with a sense of empathy-driven honesty, Yik Yak deserves the worst ranking possible.
If the new picture submission feature passes and becomes an official part of Yik Yak, it can be sure that this app will hold a destructive power never seen from an application before. Yik Yak has the potential to be a spectacular and progressive platform, but until our society makes some changes, this app earns only one star.
More Like This
Websites for wasting time — productively
By Sam Breazeale | Jan. 19, 2016One Star Wednesday: 'The Last Airbender'
By Joseph Glass | Nov. 10, 2015