YikYak. An app that we all know and pretend to love. If you have been on this campus for longer than a day, chances are you have heard someone discuss this app at least once. If you have not, consider yourself lucky. For those of you unaware, YikYak is an app famously created exclusively for college students, and it gives them the chance to talk to their peers anonymously about anything.
In recent weeks, YikYak has become an app where students go to discuss professors, make fun of the school’s Snapchat stories and gossip about the events happening on campus. If you were on the app recently, chances are you saw backlash regarding one of the bigger clubs on campus about one of the events they held. But that is not all, I have also seen a plethora of discussion posts regarding proper classroom etiquette and the food options on campus.
If you ask me, the app itself does have some good intentions behind it. For example, it gives students the ability to openly talk about their opinions and ask questions without feeling embarrassed. We as students are able to give our perspectives on important matters across campus without any worry of consequence. However, in my experience, this app does not have a good record of accomplishment regarding positive interactions with others.
The toxicity of the app starts to become an issue when the users start to indirectly insult people in their posts. Since you are not able to directly name people or else the post gets taken down, the users of this app will give the people they are speaking about different personas. Without directly naming the different personas and nicknames of people, I am positive that you would be able to identify people on campus just by hearing the names that YikYak gives them.
To see how people truly felt about this app, I decided to post on YikYak myself to see if other people felt the same way that I do. In my post, I asked users to upvote my post if they agreed that the app was negatively impacting this campus. To my surprise, almost 50 people upvoted the post, meaning that they felt the same way that I did.
Additionally, I asked users to comment underneath the post to explain their reasoning for staying on the app, despite the toxic implications behind it. From there, many users went on to explain that they are still on the app due to fear that they will be talked about on there without being able to defend themselves. Some other anonymous users explained that they enjoy seeing the drama they see on the app each day. Whether they were being sarcastic or not, this was a common response to my initial question. Despite some people saying that they are only here for the drama or out of fear, some people said that they do genuinely enjoy the app and they are only on there to post their random or unnecessary thoughts.
This app was never supposed to be like this. I do not think the original creators of this app decided to create this so that college students can purposely make fun of their classmates anonymously. Instead, it was created to form a sense of community for college students that are new to campus and learning the area around them. However, when the app is then handed over to multiple young adults, the original purpose goes out the window.
I am not writing this article to try and change this app for the better, especially since I know that my opinion means nothing compared to the hundreds of people using the app. But I do want to make it known that this app can negatively impact people and their mental health. Whether these “jokes” are truthful or not, people can be cruel, and these statements can ruin their reputation or outlook on college as a whole.