A new form of social media has made its appearance at Bryant. Yik-Yak has had its rise and demise all within the few weeks of it making its way onto campus. The best way to describe this app is a mobile and localized anonymous version of Twitter. With this app, it will use the location services and display posts within a certain radius nearby.
The original plan was to act as a “virtual bulletin board,” but people have been using it to critique other people and just tear others apart. All across the news there have been incidents of cyber-bullying because of this app for smart phones.
Yik-Yak has been causing issues that range from bullying, racial harassment, sexual harassment, to bombs threats and threats of physical violence. On this app, people think they can say anything because they are not physically doing anything; they are just empty threats. However, there can be repercussions of these anonymous posts. There have been people arrested for bomb threats, as well as schools who have taken disciplinary actions against students for bullying.
Bryant has taken it upon themselves to block this app from the university’s Wi-Fi in order to protect the students. On such a small campus, there really shouldn’t be as much hate for each other as there has been on this app. There have posts on Yik-Yak that aren’t so bad. Some people are describing it as one user writes, “[Yik-Yak is essentially] a gateway to find out if you’re funny, and not having to own up to it when you realize you’re not”. So happy yakking everyone, and keep it classy because remember in the words of Eleanor Roosevelt…
“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people”.