Alyssa Navarro
Staff Writer
A relatively new social media app, Yik Yak, is causing a lot of buzz on college campuses across the country, and La Verne is no different.
An informal survey of students on campus found that 11 out of 15 students have used the app. Although not every student is a frequent Yik Yak user, many students still use the app to see what interesting gossip is spreading around on campus.
“A wide variety of people use Yik Yak, especially people you wouldn’t expect,” junior speech communications major Jennifer Wheeler said.
“They may not necessarily post but they are definitely on there checking it out and seeing what’s being posted.”
Yik Yak is essentially an anonymous version of tweeting. It acts like a local bulletin board by allowing anyone to connect and share information anonymously.
The app requires no sign up, profile or password. It uses GPS enablement to send yaks, or messages.
It shows the most recent posts from other users within a 1.5-mile radius. Recently, Yik Yak has added a new feature where you can search and save any location for any location in the world. That way, even if you are 50 miles away from campus, you can still search it up and read the “yaks” for that region. Yik Yak has a list of rules for users to follow.
The app’s first rule is, “You do not bully or specifically target other yakkers.” As one might expect, not all user adhere to this rule. Students still continue to post offensive material calling out specific people and organizations.
“The app is really scandalous because people mention other peoples names directly even though they are not supposed to,” senior kinesiology major Michael Bonnocattio said. Nick Estevez, junior chemistry major, has been mentioned on the app.
A user commented about his good looks by specifically calling out his number on the team.
“It was pretty flattering but at the same time you never know how sincere it is when it’s coming from an anonymous source,” he said.
Because the posts are anonymous, as often happens when people are allowed to say things on the Internet from behind the veil of anonymity, the comments can get mean and inappropriate.
“The negativity is really unnecessary but it’s not anything unexpected,” Wheeler said. Trends among the “yaks” contain negativity surrounding Greek life or the food served at Davenport.
“It’s a way for people to vent or talk about how much the school sucks,” Karla Ruiz, junior multimedia major, said. If a post is stirring up too much negativity, there are ways that it can get taken down. It has to get down voted enough times by other users on the forum for the comment to disappear.
“When I see really bad comments about people I just down vote it,” Ruiz said. “If there are enough down votes on a comment (Yik Yak) deletes the post.”
Alyssa Navarro can be reached at alyssa.navarro@laverne.edu.
