There’s a routine to walking into a lecture hall at FSU. People come in, find their usual seats, and settle into their own spaces. Conversations happen, but they stay contained in small groups and quick exchanges — nothing really extends beyond the people you already know.
No one’s unfriendly, but no one’s going out of their way to have a deep conversation either. For the most part, everyone just exists next to each other, sharing the same space without really interacting beyond it. Then, there’s Yik Yak.
Open the app during that same class, and it feels like a completely different environment. Suddenly, people are talking. Jokes, complaints, random observations, and questions that would probably never be said out loud all show up at once. It’s chaotic, sometimes unfiltered, occasionally questionable, and it somehow feels more social than the room you’re physically sitting in. Even if you’re not part of it directly, there’s an actual conversation happening somewhere.
What makes it even stranger is that it’s the same group of people. The ones posting, replying, and upvoting are the same students sitting a few seats away, scrolling quietly through their phones.
The difference is that on Yik Yak, there’s no pressure attached to being seen. There are no introductions, no expectations, and no real risk of saying the wrong thing to the wrong person. You can say something, and it either lands or it doesn’t, and then you move on without having to think about it again.
That lack of pressure changes everything. In a classroom, there’s an unspoken awareness of how you come across. You might think about what you’re saying and who’s hearing it. Even starting a conversation can feel like more of a thing than it should be.
On Yik Yak, none of that really exists. There’s no name attached, no expectations, and nothing you have to keep up with. You just say something, and that’s it, with no follow-up or responsibility tied to it.
At the same time, it isn’t always meaningful; a lot of it is surface-level. Quick jokes, complaints about professors, and comments about whatever is going on in Landis Green fill most of the feed, and most of it disappears just as quickly as it shows up. Everyone’s reacting to the same things at the same time, even if they never acknowledge each other outside of a screen.
That’s what makes it so strange. The same people who won’t talk to each other in class are fully interacting online. Someone posts something, people nearby see it, laugh, reply, and keep it pushing, but not actually acknowledging each other in person. It’s still interaction, just in a version where no one has to show up as themselves.
In that sense, Yik Yak isn’t necessarily creating a stronger sense of community, but makes interaction easier. The same people who hesitate to speak in a classroom have no problem contributing to a conversation when they can do it without being perceived.
When Yik Yak feels more social than real life, it’s not because it’s better. If anything, it’s because it’s simpler. It just makes interaction easier, and somehow, that ends up feeling more connected than the spaces where we’re actually sitting next to each other.
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